For an idol, the screams and cheers of their fans in the audience are their stimulant.

And rap stages are the easiest to get the audience pumped up.

Even Lu Xiaowan, who had never rapped before and was relatively gentle, couldn’t help but feel energized by the cheers of the audience after going on stage.

Let alone Jiang Ye, who was fully immersed in the performance.

She was always the kind of person who got better with more viewers.

After being reborn, she often felt a sense of disorientation and confusion, unable to feel grounded.

Only when she received those screams and cheers meant for her did she feel truly alive.

So, Jiang Ye took off her earpiece, wanting to hear those thunderous screams with her own ears.

Her fans in the audience didn’t disappoint her.

“Jiang Ye!! I can’t take it anymore, I really can’t take it anymore!!!”

“Forget being a mother! I’m seeing who can still be a mother after today!”

“Damn, damn, damn, damn! I’m calling this the Jiang Ye Stage Murder Scene!”

Amidst the roaring cheers, the five of them waved to the audience and slowly moved towards the center of the stage.

It was early spring, and it was evening, but the concert hall didn’t have air conditioning, so it was a bit chilly.

However, the performers on stage had bright eyes. Sweat dripped down their foreheads and cheeks, a vibrant and youthful energy unique to teenage girls.

The hearts of the audience beat in time with theirs, and the warmth of the stage enveloped them, making them forget the chill.

Mentor Cui Qi rubbed his ears as he came on stage, joking, “I could hear the cheers from the audience backstage, it was so loud my ears hurt.”

He pretended to be puzzled and jokingly asked the audience, “Don’t your throats hurt?”

The audience all laughed.

Amidst the laughter, someone shouted, “They! Deserve! It!”

“Wow, it seems like they really don’t hurt.”

Cui Qi smiled, “Come on, girls, say hello to these fearless fans.”

“Hello everyone.”

Jiang Ye led her team in bowing to the audience, “We are—Although Tiny, But What’s Wrong With That!”

The audience was stunned for two seconds, then burst into laughter.

“You all see that we’re a group of five, right?”

Jiang Ye said, “But actually, we’re a team of ten. It’s just that a few friends couldn’t be here with us today.”

The trainees in the backstage viewing room, who had been cheering along with the audience, were all stunned.

The previous groups had all deliberately avoided mentioning the eliminated trainees.

They wanted to avoid making those trainees feel sad after the broadcast, and they also wanted to avoid feeling sad themselves.

But the ‘Tiny’ group openly mentioned them.

Jiang Ye even said all their names, then said, “Maybe when this episode airs, you’ll see this stage.”

“So I hope that this stage won’t disappoint those who have left.”

“Also.”

After addressing her teammates, she turned to her fans.

Jiang Ye glanced at the audience, “I heard everyone wants me to rap?”

The audience responded in unison.

“Yes——!”

“Sister Ye, do you know how cool you are when you rap!!!”

Jiang Ye twirled her dreadlocks with her fingers, then smiled, “So, did I meet your expectations with this stage?”

The audience’s screams erupted again, like a boiling pot.

“Super awesome!!!”

“I’m so satisfied!!!”

“Wuwuwu, I’m so into you, Sister! I’m just waiting for you to propose.”

“Since everyone is satisfied.”

Jiang Ye blinked, “Then remember to vote for our team later.”

•••

After the ‘Tiny’ group left the stage, the last performance of the night, ‘If I Can’, came on.

This was also the most anticipated of the five original songs from the program team.

The other songs had a certain genre bias, but this song was a very standard idol group song, suitable for all-round idols.

And the C position for this song was Lin Zui.

Amidst the cheers of the audience, the lights and music started.

Lin Zui, in the center of the stage, turned around with the beat, appearing in front of the audience.

The girl’s expression was still confident, her eyes shining, as if she hadn’t been affected by her drop in ranking at all.

Just like she said before.

She came to the show just to do every stage well, nothing else mattered.

After the performance.

Lin Zui bowed to the fans first, then said, “You all voted for this song for me, ‘If I Can’.”

“It’s true, I’ve had moments of doubt, I’ve had plateaus, but thank you for choosing this song for me, it helped me find myself again on stage.”

“But now I want to tell you.”

“It’s not if I can, it’s really can.”

•••

After Lin Zui finished her performance, all the groups returned to the stage.

The rules for the third performance were that the audience would vote for their favorite group out of the five, and the group with the highest total votes would get a bonus of 50,000 votes for all its members.

The current voting system had changed from five votes per person per day to two votes per person per day, so these 50,000 bonus votes were even more important than the previous two performances.

Cui Qi: “Now, each group, give yourselves a final appeal.”

Each group’s C position was carrying the expectations of their entire group, and they all used their skills, some being cute, some pleading, all hoping to get a few more votes at this moment.

When it was the ‘Tiny’ group’s turn, Jiang Ye just listened.

The audience in the audience screamed again.

“Listen, do we need to appeal?”

Jiang Ye smiled, “Not just now, the loudest screams in the whole venue seem to have happened when our group appeared, right?”

She was a little more proud and arrogant than usual tonight, but it matched her outfit and style, and people couldn’t help but find her adorable in this different mode.

“The screams of the audience are the best voting machines.”

Jiang Ye blinked, “So, please follow your screams and vote from your heart.”

Liang Yu whistled, “Did you hear what Sister Ye said? Everyone who screamed for us just now, you know who to vote for, right?”

The other four groups: "..."

Lin Zui jokingly clenched her fists, “Sisters, let’s beat her up together!”

“Help!”

“Trainee Lin Zui is bullying people!”

•••

After the audience finished voting, they left the venue.

The trainees returned to another recording studio to wait for the results to be announced.

The trainees who had been joking around just now suddenly became serious.

Because the rankings were announced from lowest to highest, one trainee couldn’t help but cover her eyes, “No, no, no, don’t let me see, just tell me the results later.”

Although everyone had been enthusiastically appealing for votes on stage.

But in reality, everyone knew that the third performance was indirectly a competition of fan numbers.

In the previous voting rounds, since everyone could vote for each stage, there were only cases where people voted for other trainees to suppress a specific trainee.

But in the third performance, everyone only had one vote, so they would naturally vote for their favorite idol’s stage.

So, this was also a time to see which group had the most die-hard fans.

After all, those who would spend money to buy tickets for the third performance were definitely hardcore fans.

The rankings started to be announced.

The ‘Microlight’ group, without any top-ranked trainees, came in fifth.

The ‘Wonder’ group came in fourth.

The ‘The Wind by the Sea’ group came in third.

Only the top two were left.

Lin Zui and Jiang Ye looked at each other.

As expected.

It was called a performance stage, but the final result would still be decided between the two of them.

Jiang Ye was actually a little unsure in her heart.

Although their group had her and Liang Yu, two trainees with high popularity, the other three were ranked quite low.

Lin Zui’s group had more evenly distributed popularity. Although only Lin Zui was in the top ranks, the other trainees usually ranked in the teens.

Because it was difficult to predict the outcome.

Everyone in the room held their breath.

The big screen suddenly jumped.

Jiang Ye hadn’t even seen it clearly when Fan Fan, who was behind her, grabbed her shoulders and shook her, “We won! We won! Jiang Ye! We’re first!”

Jiang Ye looked up.

The total vote difference between ‘Tiny’ and ‘If I Can’ was indeed very close.

But Jiang Ye, with her personal vote count as the top performer, secured first place for their group.

The applause erupted for them.

Fan Fan choked back tears, “Our ‘Tiny’ team, we’re not tiny at all.”

The pressure of staying up all night for several days finally dissipated.

Lu Xiaowan couldn’t hold back and hugged the four people around her, crying loudly.

Jiang Ye smiled and patted her hair, “What are you crying for? We won.”

“Wuwuwu.”

Lu Xiaowan sobbed, “I, I’m happy, I, I didn’t stay up all night for nothing… wuwuwu hic.”

Liang Yu didn’t seem surprised.

She raised an eyebrow, then patted Jiang Ye, “Good job!”

Jiang Ye grinned, “I told you we’d win.”

Honestly, they weren’t really a strong group.

Compared to the other groups, they had trainees who couldn’t rap, trainees who had just switched groups, trainees who didn’t want to be idols, and trainees who didn’t know why their fans voted for this song.

They had experienced separation, reorganization, and being overlooked.

But they still won.

The shining first place on the screen proved that all their efforts were worth it.

Every all-nighter they pulled in the practice room, every lap they ran around the dorm building, every set of plank exercises they did, every thousand repetitions of rap pronunciation, all of it was worth it at this moment.

•••

“——Finally over!”

On the bus back after the performance, Luo Xuan leaned on the seat in front of Jiang Ye, blinking and asking, “Do you think the program team will give us another break before the third ranking announcement?”

“Impossible.”

Jiang Ye said bluntly, “There’s still a lot to do.”

She counted on her fingers for Luo Xuan, “There’s the mentor collaboration stage coming up soon. After the collaboration stage, it’s time to prepare for the final song selection, the eliminated trainees will return, we’ll rehearse the stage, rehearse the formations, rehearse the final pyramid…”

Luo Xuan: "..."

Luo Xuan silently sat down.

It was late, and Lu Xiaowan had cried herself to sleep.

Because everyone was tired, the bus was very quiet.

Liang Yu thought for a moment and sighed regretfully, “I was going to go out for a drink to celebrate our first place.”

Jiang Ye: “… You’re thinking too much.”

And the program team wouldn’t let you go out.

“But I have to say, I really, really, really enjoyed performing on stage today.”

Liang Yu sighed, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on such an enjoyable stage.”

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and asked in confusion, “Wasn’t your last performance in the rap group too?”

“That doesn’t count.”

Liang Yu muttered under her breath, “That was the position evaluation, everyone knew everyone, and we were basically all singing our own parts.”

They were superficially harmonious, but actually competing with each other.

Although this behavior was understandable in a competitive show, she still found it boring.

So, when the total vote count was announced last time, she was basically thinking, “Just get it over with, we can all go home.”

“But this time was different, the five of us were working together on one stage.”

Liang Yu sighed, “That feeling was amazing!”

Jiang Ye smiled and said, “There will be many more opportunities like this in the future.”

“Where will the opportunities come from?”

Liang Yu shook her head calmly, “My company probably won’t let me debut with you.”

Jiang Ye was suddenly stunned.

“And my fans are very clear that I’m not very suitable for a group, so their voting for me should be over by the final night.”

“Being in a group is actually a waste of my time, because I don’t really like traditional idol groups’ singing and dancing.”

“I don’t want to take up a position, it would be unfair to those who really want to be idols.”

“But Jiang Ye.”

Liang Yu extended a fist and raised her chin, “No matter what the opportunity is, or how big it is, I’m going to collaborate with you again in the future.”

She hadn’t felt that burst of joy for a long time, the kind she felt on stage just now.

During their duet rap, she really felt the sparks of charm flying off.

Liang Yu had thought that she could only feel this kind of feeling from rappers who were as professional as her.

She never expected it to happen between her and an idol she couldn’t understand, and who couldn’t understand her.

But no matter what, Liang Yu loved this feeling.

She had high standards and rarely liked anyone.

There were a few senior rappers in the rap scene before.

Now, Jiang Ye was one of them.

Jiang Ye looked at her for a moment and smiled.

She raised her hand and lightly bumped fists with her, laughing, “Okay, I promise, we’ll meet again in the future.”