Chapter Forty-Nine: One Emperor, Four Sovereigns

In the evening, Liao Yuan sat in front of his computer, opened YouNet, and clicked on the featured “Produce 101” video on the homepage.

The show had already started. Liao Yuan stared intently at the screen, scrutinizing every frame from the moment Liao Meiqi appeared. When he saw the entire audience seemingly mocking Liao Meiqi’s unfashionable clothes, with a subtitle highlighting her small company background as if to emphasize it, Liao Yuan’s hands clenched involuntarily.

Indeed, compared to other contestants with powerful backgrounds, Liao Meiqi’s attire was as plain as could be. His sister was just like him; their wardrobes forever held only those two identical sets of clothes.

The thought filled Liao Yuan with guilt, but he knew that from this moment on, this scene would never occur again.

As the country’s first youth girl group reality show, “Produce 101” was not only broadcast on the three major domestic online video platforms but also aired simultaneously during prime time on East Sea TV. Although the internet era had eroded much of television’s viewership, there were still those obsessed with the cinematic experience of a big TV screen.

With both online and offline releases, the show generated immense buzz even before it aired. On YouNet alone, one of the three major video sites, the pre-broadcast feature reports had already amassed over sixty million views.

Every contestant who passed the preliminary auditions had a dedicated staff member for special coverage. As many media outlets introduced before the show, those who passed the auditions and became one of the 101, even if later eliminated, would still gain a certain level of popularity. Even if they never set foot in entertainment again, they could easily find loyal followers as streamers.

Such was the power of a major platform.

The first episode mainly introduced the 101 contestants, each of whom received a close-up and a talent performance. For example, Xie Yuqin, the younger sister of one of the Empire’s Seven Sons, elicited cheers and screams the moment she appeared, and the barrage of messages on the video was instantly flooded with people calling in to vote for her.

Then there were two already-debuted girl group members returning from Japan and Korea. Their dance performances revealed a solid foundation, making it obvious at a glance how they differed from the others.

Contestants like these all had a built-in fan base, so the barrage of on-screen comments never ceased.

At last, as Liao Yuan resisted the urge to fast-forward, Liao Meiqi finally appeared.

Other than her delicate, oval face, Liao Meiqi’s appearance was utterly unremarkable. She hugged a guitar in her arms, standing center stage under everyone’s scrutiny, looking slightly frail.

Yet this ordinary girl, after finishing her rendition of “For the Rest of My Life,” instantly won the enthusiastic support of the songwriting mentor Zheng Yongxu. With a mentor personally stepping forward to back her, the audience immediately saw something special in her.

Thus, the barrage section of the video was almost simultaneously filled with comments like “Beautiful!” “Heavenly!” “Already a fan!” “Calling in like crazy!” “Watching ‘For the Rest of My Life’ for the third time!” and so on.

Liao Yuan was very satisfied with Meiqi’s performance.

Though she seemed nervous, his sister’s singing was steady and controlled, showing the ease born of years of hard work.

Finally, seeing Meiqi selected for Class A, Liao Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

He glanced at the real-time “likes” leaderboard on the video page:

Liao Meiqi, with lightning speed, shot into the top three within just three to five minutes of her appearance, garnering 730,000 likes—only 140,000 behind the second place.

But she was still far behind Xie Yuqin’s three million likes at the top.

However, as time passed, Liao Meiqi was rapidly closing the gap with the top two contestants.

Soon, the entire episode was drawing to a close.

The 101 contestants were about to finish sorting into their respective classes.

At that moment, because there were too many candidates for Class A, contestant Ju Nianzhi challenged Liao Meiqi to a battle for a place in Class A.

“So intense, this is too exciting!”

“I love Shan Zhi so much, sob sob sob!”

“Ugh, Ju Nianzhi is really overestimating herself! How dare she challenge our Big Brother Shan Zhi!”

“Calling for Big Brother Shan Zhi like crazy!”

“Go, Big Brother! You’ll always be the best!”

“I’m dying of laughter, does this girl think our Big Brother Shan Zhi is easy to bully, looking for a pushover?”

“Raise your hand if you cried listening to Big Brother Shan Zhi’s ‘Remembrance’!”

“+1”

“+2”

“+3”

...

Liao Yuan was enjoying the lively barrage when he realized the episode was already over.

In the preview for the next episode, snippets of Liao Meiqi singing and dancing were shown, causing many viewers to go wild with excitement.

But Liao Yuan suddenly remembered the barrage he had just seen—“Remembrance”?

Having watched the entire episode, he hadn’t seen any chance for “Remembrance” to be performed. Even in the preview, he only managed to make out a segment of “If There’s Another Life.”

Curious, he searched for Liao Meiqi’s name in the search bar.

Very quickly, Liao Meiqi’s dedicated page appeared before him.

Though the show had just ended, Liao Meiqi’s followers on YouNet had already exceeded one million.

Liao Yuan knew that this figure was likely inflated—a promotional tactic, just like his own microblog followers, which had surpassed a million, though at least thirty percent were bots.

He looked at his sister’s profile, then continued scrolling down.

Soon, a pinned video caught his eye.

“Liao Meiqi’s new work ‘Remembrance,’ dedicated to students preparing for the college entrance exam and all those who once toiled for it.”

Seeing that the video had surpassed three million views and tens of thousands of comments, Liao Yuan fell silent.

Could it be that YouNet really didn’t have any bot followers?

Did Meiqi actually have more fans than he did?

After listening to “Remembrance,” Liao Yuan let out a long breath. He knew the fledgling bird had begun to learn to fly.

From now on, even without his care, Liao Meiqi would carve out a future for herself through her own efforts.

Liao Yuan felt a sense of relief.

But when he thought of himself, sorrow welled up in his heart.

After work, he logged into Jili Gulu to check the stats for “The Fact That You Left,” which he had uploaded the previous night—its views had just barely passed ninety thousand, and the barrage count was only three or four thousand. Compared to Meiqi’s “Remembrance,” which had surpassed three million views in just an hour or two, his own result was downright dismal...

Still, Liao Yuan didn’t mind much.

Uploading to the base was just an experiment; he didn’t care about the ups and downs of the numbers, treating the platform merely as a place to share.

Of course, if what he shared could be liked by others, or even bring a bit of profit to his financially strained life, so much the better!

With this thought, he picked up his S-277 and played “Unravel,” which he had already performed publicly, then uploaded it to Jili Gulu.

Just as the upload finished, a “ding” sounded.

Liao Yuan looked up and opened his message box, where he saw a notification sent to all users from the Jili Gulu team:

“Dear Music Section Uploaders, the 2021 Music King and Four Emperors Contest has launched again—tens of millions in prizes await you...”