115: Flying guests

The service at the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain is no joke. Lu Qingyu thought he would take the opportunity to advertise his own restaurant, so he took a few photos while eating. After the celebration banquet ended, he posted the photos on Weibo.

When the fans saw their idol active, and taking selfies at that, they went wild.

【Hot Pot Restaurant Chain, ahhh, my little brother actually went to eat at the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain.】

【What place is this? Can someone recommend it? It looks delicious.】

【Hot Pot Restaurant Chain hot pot, the paradise of the service industry. If you are an extrovert, you must come.】

【I've been to this hot pot place once, the service is incredible. There were a lot of people when I went, and while I was waiting in line, the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain even gave me a free manicure.】

【Holy crap, sister, your manicure is so pretty! I spent 588 and it's not even as good as this.】

【When will the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain open in City A? I will definitely support it.】

Because of Lu Qingyu's one Weibo post, business at the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain skyrocketed again. Previously, one had to wait about an hour for lunch or dinner at the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain, but now, you can't even get a seat without waiting for two hours.

Lu Qingyu had been filming quite hard lately, so to give him a break, Su Jixing helped him take on a variety show as a guest.

In the morning, Su Jixing went to pick up Lu Qingyu and took the opportunity to go over the day's activities.

Su Jixing opened the notes app on his phone and said, "Qingyu, I've booked you for a music variety show as a guest. It's tomorrow night at eight."

Lu Qingyu: "A guest? So that means it's only for one episode?"

"Do I need to prepare a setlist in advance?"

Su Jixing shook his head with a sly smile: "No, you don't need to sing this time."

"This variety show is called 'Dream Song'. The contestants are all people in the industry who have been around for a while, have good skills, but aren't very famous. Every episode, ten singers will compete on stage, and after the judges score them, the bottom two will be eliminated based on their rankings."

Lu Qingyu asked in confusion: "Since I don't need to sing, am I going as a judge?"

Su Jixing shook his head: "Not that either."

Lu Qingyu looked at Su Jixing: "Then what am I doing? Acting as a mascot?"

Su Jixing nodded and explained to Lu Qingyu: "Pretty much."

"You've been too tired lately and haven't had time to rest. This project just happened to come along, so you'll be attending as an investor representative. You don't need to sing; you just sit in the audience and listen. After the singers finish, just interact with them a bit."

There are four judges for 'Dream Song'. Besides the judges, there is also an investor team, which consists of the enterprises and companies that invested in 'Dream Song', totaling six seats.

This program is giving opportunities to those singers who don't have much buzz, allowing them to increase their exposure. With Lu Qingyu's current level of popularity, he doesn't need this kind of exposure at all, so being a contestant is out of the question.

The judges' seats were invited long ago and can't be changed easily, so the only thing left is the investor team.

By participating in this show, Lu Qingyu can maintain his variety show activity without needing to put in too much effort; it's equivalent to attending a concert and finishing the program.

Lu Qingyu felt this activity was decent: "But why would I be sitting with the organizer team? Did Black Pearl invest in 'Dream Song'?"

Su Jixing suddenly looked disgusted: "Black Pearl didn't invest. It was Qingcheng Entertainment that invested. Your company even sent Zhao Xinyu there; you didn't know this?"

Lu Qingyu's hand holding the bun paused. Ah, he really didn't know!

He suddenly remembered that Wang Ning had told him before that the company wanted to invest in some film, television, or variety show projects. At the time, Lu Qingyu had approved that Wang Ning could make decisions on projects under ten million on his own.

Because the company had started to cultivate its own artists, including singers and actors, investing in these projects could give the company's artists more areas for development.

For example, one of the singers in this 'Dream Song' was sent by their company.

Lu Qingyu looked at Su Jixing's gaze and said calmly: "I knew."

Su Jixing's eyes revealed suspicion: "You look like you didn't know."

"Anyway, you don't have any tasks tonight; just have fun."

The 'Dream Song' Program Production Team released a program preview on their official website, and the list of singers and judges was also revealed.

Normally, as an investor representative, or one of the financial backers of the show, Lu Qingyu wouldn't be specifically mentioned by the program. However, because his traffic is so high right now, the Program Production Team used Lu Qingyu for promotion to attract more viewers.

To keep everyone's curiosity piqued, the Program Production Team put a mosaic over Lu Qingyu's photo and wrote "Mysterious guest" is coming.

Since the photo was mosaicked, how did everyone guess it was Lu Qingyu?

This was a little trick by the Program Production Team. To ensure everyone could guess it, the photo they chose was the one from when Lu Qingyu first participated in the love sect, running while riding his luggage suitcase.

As long as they are Lu Qingyu's fans, no one could fail to recognize this photo.

【Laughing to death, this mosaic is practically non-existent.】

【Program Production Team, if you had any intention, you should have mosaicked the suitcase too.】

【Hahaha, this is the first time I've seen such an easy-to-guess mysterious guest.】

【Is my little brother going as a guest or a judge? Does anyone know?】

Because of Lu Qingyu, the Program Production Team's popularity shot up instantly.

The next day, the 'Dream Song' program began. Behind the scenes of the Program Production Team, all ten singers had arrived.

The newly signed artist from Qingcheng Entertainment is named Zhao Xinyu, 26 years old. He used to be an internet singer, having sung songs on live-streaming software for 4 years, gaining some fame but not much.

He was personally signed to Qingcheng Entertainment by Wang Ning. He had watched a few of Zhao Xinyu's live streams and found that he didn't ask fans for tips the moment he went online like other internet singers. Instead, he focused on chatting with fans and singing for them. He didn't have the restlessness of an internet singer, and Wang Ning thought he was a talent worth cultivating.

Zhao Xinyu did not have professional training. The company hired a music teacher to train him for more than two months, and just happened to have this opportunity, so they sent him over.

Zhao Xinyu didn't have much interaction with the other singers backstage. Apart from polite greetings, he basically just sat there without moving.

Serious singers look down on internet singers because the internet allows for auto-tuning; no matter how bad the singing is, it can be fixed through software. Everyone didn't say it out loud, but in their hearts, they already believed Zhao Xinyu's professional skills were definitely not up to par, and their cliquish behavior already showed they looked down on internet singers.

Zhao Xinyu knew this in his heart, because it wasn't his first time being looked down upon.

The program hadn't started yet, and a few singers were chatting.

Wang Tong, professionally trained, debuted 6 years ago but remained mediocre. People with professional training carry an air of arrogance:

"I heard the mysterious guest invited by the Program Production Team is Lu Qingyu."

"Lu Qingyu, is he coming as a guest?"

"No, we only have ten guests, there won't be any more added."

"Then that means he's being made a judge. Lu Qingyu is so young, although he's very popular, but it's a bit inappropriate to be a judge, right?"

"Has the threshold for music become this low now? How old is Lu Qingyu? He isn't qualified to be a judge, is he?"