The Stage Had Been Trampled Beneath His Talent

What had Bai Youlou turned The Voice into?

The universally acknowledged biggest rival, the contestant Zhang Xiaorong who was the only one with the strength to become the hero who defeated the "Demon King," was an artist signed to his company, and Bai Youlou had written all her songs too.

The universally acknowledged biggest victim, Zhen Dongjun—the person who, in the eyes of the gossiping masses, should have been giving Bai Youlou a hard time—had long since reached a shady deal with him. Now they were hiding together in a dark corner, letting out sinister cackles.

The hidden mini-boss, Deputy Station Director Xiao Liu's daughter, Host Xiao Liu, had been dealt with by Bai Youlou before she knew what was happening. Though everyone involved was free-spirited and there probably wouldn't be any follow-up, Host Xiao Liu was quite willing to offer Bai Youlou a little "help."

As for Bai Youlou now, he might not have had complete control over The Voice, but basically, there was no one who could make things difficult for him anymore. Or rather, no one could make things difficult for him at all.

If The Voice was treated as a dungeon,

Bai Youlou had already cleared it ahead of schedule.

All right, now the problem was in the production team's hands.

How exactly were they supposed to bring this show to a proper close?

The "Miss Dong" controversy was still raging online. As the most directly involved victim, Bai Youlou's reputation had once again plummeted.

He had successfully established the image of an artistic hooligan who relied on a little talent to do whatever he pleased.

Now, no one was denying Bai Youlou's talent anymore. What everyone was discussing was just how low this guy's moral standards were! Could he be considered the entertainment industry's moral wasteland?

The production team was getting a headache over how to handle this "moral wasteland" contestant.

Fortunately, Zhen Dongjun sent them a "big gift" at just the right time!

After watching that surveillance video, they were far more excited than Bai Youlou had been.

That made Zhen Dongjun feel like he was still living in the real world. After all, when he showed the footage to the person involved, that person had barely reacted and clearly hadn't cared at all.

For a while, he even wondered whether he was dreaming and simply hadn't woken up yet.

However, after exchanging information with the production team, the scope of their shady deal expanded once more.

Once they learned that Zhen Dongjun had such good material in his hands, the production team immediately perked up!

This time, they could swallow every bit of traffic there was!

"See, Director Chen really has an eye for talent. He made the call to bring Bai Youlou onto our show, and it turns out this kid really was wronged. I knew there was something off about how Zhen Dongjun treated him!"

"We have Director Chen to thank. What does the little bit of traffic those other shows get amount to? The biggest wave of traffic will be ours. We'll have Bai Youlou compete against Zhang Xiaorong in the finals and take the discussion value straight to the top!"

"..."

Anyone could fight when everything was going their way. It was hard to imagine that these people had still been arguing a few days ago over the public backlash caused by Bai Youlou's song "Miss Dong."

Back then, they had all felt they were about to be overwhelmed by this "troublemaker," and they had been discussing whether to kick Bai Youlou off the show early.

Now, naturally, everyone was daydreaming together about how they would distribute the credit after the show became a huge success.

Actually, filming for The Voice was already more than halfway complete.

After all, nearly half the show consisted of the early blind auditions, where contestants were selected without the judges seeing them.

That segment had extremely high ratings, and many viewers loved watching it.

The later competitions, on the other hand, were somewhat less distinctive and were about the same as those on other talent shows.

All the highlights now rested on the handful of contestants with the most attention.

Shows like this were always recorded and broadcast at the same time. Several episodes had already aired. The ratings were average, mainly because there hadn't been any contestants with truly explosive performances.

Although the show had made it onto the trending searches a few times, there was a lot of artificial boosting involved. Quite a few of those spots had been bought by the production team.

The Voice production team, however, wasn't worried in the slightest, because Bai Youlou and the others would appear in the next episode.

Yet right at that moment, some "bad news" arrived.

Bai Youlou was withdrawing from the competition!

His reason was perfectly valid: he had to go to the Cannes Film Festival.

Although there was still some time before the festival officially opened, Bai Youlou and Old Zhou had to go there early to sell the film. They were expected to stay for at least half a month.

The show had just finished selecting the top four contestants from each mentor's team.

The next round of filming would select one champion from each team, followed by the ultimate competition.

Two of the four spots in Zhen Dongjun's team had been taken by Bai Youlou and Long Ziqiang.

The other two contestants from the same team had advanced, but they couldn't feel happy about it at all. The next round was still an internal team competition, with one contestant from each group of four being selected to participate in the finals.

Did they really have to compete for it?

Before, they indeed wouldn't have needed to. Although the contestants had no idea what was wrong with Zhen Dongjun, his determination to promote Bai Youlou was obvious.

Everyone knew that the contestant from Zhen Dongjun's team who would ultimately advance to the finals had to be Bai Youlou.

As for Long Ziqiang? He was the kind of guy who kept a low profile. Although he was equally formidable, his brilliance had been somewhat concealed by Bai Youlou, so he hadn't attracted quite as much attention.

But now Bai Youlou declared, "I'm making way for your musical dreams, brothers."

The other two students from Zhen Dongjun's team were ecstatic when they heard the news. Holy crap, something this good actually happened?!

But beneath their excitement was also a hint of sadness. Something they had dreamed of obtaining seemed almost beneath notice to him.

Of course, they had no time to dwell on such things. What awaited them next was the stage of the finals! All they had to do was take down the other person!

Originally, the two remaining contestants from this group had been huddling together for warmth. The moment they heard Bai Youlou was leaving, they immediately began treating each other as their greatest rival.

However, although the contestants were thrilled that the Demon King was actually leaving, the production team was unwilling to let Bai Youlou go so easily.

If he left, how were they supposed to stage the grand drama that came afterward?! They absolutely couldn't let such a massive source of traffic escape!

Before long, a persuader came knocking.

But Bai Youlou never expected that the production team would send Host Xiao Liu to convince him.

That made him wonder whether his habit of visiting her home for no particular reason had somehow been exposed.

"The production team thinks I have a pretty good relationship with you, and that you're one of my little fans."

"How are they asking you to persuade me not to leave?" Bai Youlou asked curiously.

Host Xiao Liu didn't hide anything at all. She directly exposed the "bottom line."

Pink.

"They're willing to promote you as this season's champion, and they can offer you a top-level contract."

In just a few words, the young woman had revealed every last detail of The Voice production team's offer.

The people who had instructed her to say this had wanted her to reveal the terms one by one, slowly luring Bai Youlou onto the hook.

But what could Host Xiao Liu do?

She had already exposed the bottom line.

"Come on, turn around."

"Oh, oh~"

After obediently changing the "negotiating" position, Host Xiao Liu closed her eyes but didn't forget the mission she was carrying.

"Can't you really stay? I've been looking forward to seeing you, Teacher Bai, standing on the stage of the finals too."

Bai Youlou could only say that there was truly nothing he could do. Participating in the finals would require him to stay at least another week, which would delay his trip to sell the film.

Host Xiao Liu said nothing more. Having her act as the persuader was the worst move the production team could have made.

She simply had no way to persuade Bai Youlou. After their repeated encounters, she had always been the one persuaded into bed.

She could only close her eyes and sigh, "This stage has already been trampled beneath your talent."

Bai Youlou straightened her with both hands, his expression solemn, and began to exert himself. "But I've also brought it to a whole new height!"