Lin Sen's Rating Was Crushed; He Spent Money to Pave the Way for Jiang Fang

Lin Sen, you can do this!

He slowly walked to the center of the stage, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and kept psyching himself up.

Even though he wanted to regain his former confidence, Lin Sen sadly realized that Jiang Fang's influence on him was simply too great.

His mind was filled with images of Jiang Fang onstage and the mentors' endless praise.

Lin Sen couldn't help caring.

However, he could hesitate, but the backing track wouldn't. By the time he came to his senses, the intro had already been playing for a while.

This is bad!

Lin Sen's heart tightened. Such a terrible start made it impossible for him to suppress his panic.

Still, it couldn't be denied that Lin Sen had some ability. Even under those circumstances, he barely caught up with the beat and gradually adjusted himself. However, because he had been overly confident before, Lin Sen had chosen a difficult performance for his initial rating. As a result, even with damage control, he couldn't salvage the overall performance.

The entire performance was a complete mess.

He kept missing beats and dancing more chaotically by the second. That was a huge taboo for an idol.

If he had managed to recover, the mentors might have thought more highly of Lin Sen.

Duan Yu in particular, who had come from a survival show himself, couldn't bear to watch this scene and could only cover his forehead.

Lin Sen had been an idol for several years too. Watching the rhythm slip further and further out of his control, he panicked more and more. Knowing that his initial rating was already beyond saving, he gritted his teeth and deliberately twisted his ankle hard.

In an instant, he stumbled.

His ankle burned with pain. It would probably swell up.

The backing track finally stopped. Lin Sen's face was deathly pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat, and his ankle hurt terribly.

Even so, he seemed to hear whispers all around him. "Oh my God, didn't they say Lin Sen was really capable? Why was he dancing like that? How did he even pass the auditions?"

"Dancing like that, he's definitely getting D-tier, right?"

"He looked so confident before. I thought he was at least A-tier, but he's not even as good as me."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... He danced like that and still took digs at Jiang Fang. Hehe, got slapped in the face now, huh?!"

With Jiang Fang's S-tier performance setting the standard before him, Lin Sen's entire performance looked like trash in comparison. There was simply no comparison at all.

Though everyone was speaking quietly, their words wormed their way into Lin Sen's ears from every direction. His gaze darkened, his face turned slightly green, and his lips trembled.

So he decided to strike first.

"Sorry, mentors." Lin Sen deliberately took a step forward and bowed to them.

Now everyone could see that his foot was injured.

"What happened? Is Lin Sen injured? No wonder he danced like that. Then it's understandable." Someone suddenly realized. "Come on, his foot looked perfectly fine at the start."

In truth, Lin Sen had been too panicked at the beginning to remember to fake it. Only later did he realize and hurriedly start limping.

"Ah, was he faking it?"

"But why would he fake it?"

"Umm... Hahaha, it couldn't be because of the big shot, could it? I mean, it's normal to be outclassed by someone amazing. Surely it wasn't that serious, right?"

Lin Sen: It was that serious.

No one had expected Lin Sen to apologize. The hall fell silent for a few seconds.

The mentors: This was awkward.

"...Number 67, Lin Sen, right? Your foot is..." Duan Yu got Lin Sen's meaning and gave him an out.

After all, they were still filming, and this man was an investor behind the scenes. They had to give him some face.

"I was too excited before going onstage and accidentally sprained it." As he spoke, he pulled up his pant leg slightly, revealing an ankle as red as a pig's trotter.

It had to be said that Lin Sen was rather good-looking. As long as he wasn't standing beside Jiang Fang, his face could still hold up on its own.

His pale face, the way he lightly bit his lip, and the swelling around his ankle drew plenty of sympathy from the contestants below the stage.

"That's so miserable. His foot was injured so badly before he even went onstage. If it were me, my mentality would've collapsed already. Lin Sen's mental fortitude is really strong."

"Someone said Lin Sen was really skilled before, and I thought it was just a rumor. So it turns out he just didn't get to perform properly. It's okay, it's only the initial rating. Recover well and do your best later!"

"Beautiful, strong, and tragic. I feel for him."

If the newcomers below the stage had not seen much of the entertainment industry's tricks, then the three mentors onstage had been through countless battles.

Could Lin Sen's little tricks really fool them?

His foot had been perfectly fine when he first caught the beat, hadn't it? It wasn't impossible that singing and dancing had worsened the injury, but that deliberate twist at the end onstage couldn't have been their imagination, could it?

Still, there was no way they could bring such matters out into the open.

After all, Lin Sen was still an investor in the program.

They had to give him that much face.

Fang Yi rolled his eyes without any attempt to hide it.

After handing his rating to the host, Husky secretly took out his phone behind the cover of the mentors' table and furiously typed away.

Qin Yan's production crew was still rushing to meet their schedule.

Though he had squeezed in time to accept the Trainee guest invitation, that didn't mean his work on this side had ended.

That was also why his manager had demanded flexible working hours from the Trainee production team.

Of course, Qin Yan deserved that treatment.

After all, the production team should have considered themselves lucky that he accepted their invitation.

Having just wrapped up the production schedule and prepared to catch a flight, Qin Yan was resting with his eyes closed in the car. "Ding-dong!"

Qin Yan opened his eyes, took out his phone, and saw the familiar dog-head profile picture.

[Husky: Let me tell you, I ran into Lin Sen again on the show! His number tag was right next to Brother Fang's! Hahahahaha, Brother Fang is amazing. Lin Sen got so scared that his mentality collapsed, and he faked a limp while dancing like a complete mess. If nothing unexpected happens, he'll probably get the lowest rating.]

Their number tags were next to each other? What a coincidence.

Thinking of what Jiang Fang had previously asked him to investigate, Qin Yan knew Lin Sen was up to something.

Though with his intelligence, he couldn't understand why.

Stirring up trouble didn't seem to benefit Lin Sen at all, and Jiang Fang hadn't offended him anywhere, had he?

With his filters turned all the way up, Qin Yan had completely forgotten how Jiang Fang had mercilessly roasted Lin Sen in Wilderness Survival.

Originally, he had been a little worried. Though Jiang Fang had told him not to interfere, Lin Sen was capital after all. It was difficult for an ordinary worker to fight alone against someone like that.

That was why he had wanted to hurry to the production team.

With him protecting Jiang Fang, nothing would happen.

However, judging by Fang Yi's message, he had been overthinking things and underestimating Jiang Fang.

Come to think of it, Jiang Fang had managed to turn things around by himself as an ordinary person and even bring Bai Ziyu down. Dealing with someone like Lin Sen was more than easy for him.

And judging from the looks of it, Lin Sen had lost badly.

With that thought, a faint smile curved Qin Yan's lips. He swiped to his pinned WeChat chats, tapped the familiar Kitten profile picture, and sent a message.

[Heard you won another battle. Do you need me to add some fuel to the fire?]

Because Jiang Fang was still waiting for the ratings to end and wasn't in the dorm with his phone, he didn't reply.

Qin Yan knew that too. After sending the message, he closed his eyes and caught up on sleep.

The program's ratings continued.

Lin Sen received D-tier without any surprise. Even if the production team wanted to boost him to C-tier, they wouldn't have dared.

There was no other reason. His dancing had simply been too terrible.

Lin Sen had thought that, as an investor, even if he failed the initial rating, he would at least get C-tier. In an instant, he completely broke down.

His eyes immediately filled with tears, hanging there without falling. Combined with the ankle injury he had accidentally made worse for real, he looked both pitiful and ridiculous.

Still, his act really did make quite a few trainees go over to encourage him.

"Don't lose heart, Lin Sen! It was only like this because of your foot injury. You'll definitely move up next time!"

"Keep it up! Let's work hard together and strive to reach A-tier soon. It'd be even better if we could make it to S-tier."

Several innocent fools sat beside Lin Sen, chirping away as they comforted him. The more they comforted him, the darker Lin Sen's expression became. Who needs your fake sympathy?

Hah. If I hadn't hurt my foot, would it be your turn to sit here acting concerned?

You want to rise to S-tier together with me? Dream on.

Lin Sen thought those contemptuous words, yet wore an extremely moved expression on his face. He was a textbook example of a two-faced person.

After that, quite a few A-tier contestants appeared, but by the end, there were only nine S-tier contestants.

Barring any surprises, they had directly locked down debut spots. Still, with six spots chosen from nine people, the competition was fierce.

It was worth mentioning that Jiang Fang's dorm alone accounted for three S-tier contestants. One was Jiang Fang himself, another was naturally the cool guy Lu Fei, and the last was the usually unassuming Gu Siyu.

Yan Wei's results were also good. He received A-tier.

Thus, Lin Sen became the very bottom of the food chain.

--

While the program's ratings were in full swing, the media, paparazzi, and marketing accounts outside weren't resting either.

Especially those who had been paid.

So a "staff member" publicly leaked some information.

[Anonymous: I'm a low-level production assistant in the industry. A new variety show recently started filming, and there are several huge celebrities on it. I originally went because of that person who's been trending a lot lately, but then I heard them say they were tone-deaf and uncoordinated! This is a survival show, hello!]

[Thanks for the invite, but you don't need to stay anonymous. That last sentence gave you away. Looks like you're really excited.]

[Hahahahahaha, I'm dying. So is it true? If it is, how did Jiang Fang pass the auditions?]

[No way, I thought it was a joke, but it's real? Then why did he join the program? Was he really just there to gain fame?]

[How else could he get in? The casting couch, obviously~ With all those trending topics, only an idiot would believe he isn't entering the entertainment industry!]

[Damn, doesn't that mean he took someone else's audition spot? Everyone else came to chase their dreams, but someone who got in through connections showed up...]

The tide of public opinion gradually turned strange. Everyone began attacking Jiang Fang for using improper means to take away someone else's chance to pursue their dreams. Even the little Kitten from the livestream became evidence that he had gotten in through connections.

The shift came quickly. Later, some people stepped forward to say that Jiang Fang really was tone-deaf, and that his dancing looked more like a shamanic ritual.

Thus, the matter grew bigger and bigger.

Yun Feng learned about it immediately and explained the situation to Jiang Fang when they were alone.

"Do you need me to suppress it?"

Jiang Fang was stunned. He turned to look at him. "You can do that too?"

"Easy." Yun Feng said.

He hadn't expected his assistant to be like Doraemon. Not only did he have everything, he could do everything too. What a bargain.

But there was no need to suppress it.

"Don't worry. You don't need to suppress it. Someone will naturally take care of it." Jiang Fang said calmly.

Presumably, Lin Sen was very anxious right now.

Lin Sen really was anxious.

Those marketing accounts and paparazzi had all been hired by him. He had originally planned to release those posts after he crushed Jiang Fang, so that once the program aired, Jiang Fang would surely be mocked from all sides.

Lin Sen had been far too confident in himself.

By the time he lost to Jiang Fang, it was already too late to withdraw the posts.

Even when he tried to spend money to suppress them, not only was his allowance gone, the topic had become too popular for him to suppress.

Watching the discussion grow more and more heated, Lin Sen's face twisted viciously. He threw his phone, and the screen instantly became a tangled mess.

Phone: Who did I offend? What bad luck!

But that wasn't what angered Lin Sen the most. He knew that given Jiang Fang's current performance, once the program aired, these black trending topics would become the buildup for his rise!

In other words—he had spent money paving the way for Jiang Fang!