Chapter 2: White Cat

"Creating Idols," an idol boy group audition program produced by director Ning Dan, who is known as the "Godmother of Talent Shows."

This program has a total of 100 male trainees participating, ranging in age from 18 to 24.

Yes, Luo Mo had the good fortune of becoming the big brother among these 100 men.

The so-called "trainees," to put it simply, are people who are still undergoing practice and training and have not yet officially debuted as idols or artists.

According to the data provided by the program team and the publicity before the official recording, a total of 87 companies signed up for this program. Counting the trainees from these 87 companies plus the Individual Trainees who had never signed with a company, the number of people in the preliminary screening reached as high as over 4,700.

In reality, there were even more people who didn't even have the qualifications to enter the screening.

With director Ning Dan's golden reputation hanging there, and this program having deep-pocketed financial backers as title sponsors, such a production on the scale of hundreds of millions was bound to attract a swarm of people.

It can be said that these 100 trainees were all carefully selected.

They might not all be powerful in strength, but they definitely each have their own unique characteristics.

After all, making a variety show is for the sake of entertainment, and sometimes, for the sake of entertainment value, one specifically needs a few oddballs.

Based on the clear memories of the last three years he had just received, Luo Mo roughly figured out his current situation.

"Thank heavens!" Luo Mo said in his heart.

The Luo Mo of this world is not a trainee from those 87 companies; he cannot even be considered a trainee.

To be precise, he was dragged in to make up the numbers.

Originally, he came here to work as a staff member.

He knows Classical Dance and also knows Opera; he is the talent the program team needs.

When the trainees are practicing or choreographing dances, he can act as an assistant to the dance teacher.

If it involves an Opera Element, then there is even more he can do.

Therefore, in essence, he is a member of director Ning Dan's team and a member of the program staff.

—He is here to work.

This guy had never even thought about becoming an idol in the first place.

However, as luck would have it, just a few days before the program recording, a major scandal erupted in another audition program.

The backgrounds of two popular contestants were dug up; one had a lot of dark history and had even participated in school bullying, while the other had a complicated family background that could not withstand deep investigation.

This matter caused a huge stir, even hitting the Hot Search, and attracted the attention of many media outlets.

Countless netizens raised questions—"Is the threshold for the entertainment industry really this low?"

This allowed director Ning Dan to catch a whiff of the situation.

She immediately began to conduct a thorough investigation of the contestants on her own program.

Then, 3 trainees were forced to withdraw from the competition.

"This director has good methods and can be ruthless," Luo Mo evaluated in his heart.

This series of operations would indeed offend some companies in the industry.

However, the program team specifically bought a Hot Search for this matter, pushing director Ning Dan's self-investigation to the top three on the Hot Search list, drawing a wave of praise.

This made the program a hit before it was even recorded!

However, the side effect was that every move she made afterward was being watched.

Originally, with 3 spots opened up, other companies or Individual Trainees might have had a chance to maneuver a bit.

Who wouldn't want to get a piece of such a big variety show?

They were practically dying to shove their people in.

But due to the high level of attention, combined with the fact that the program was about to start recording, director Ning Dan decided to play it safe.

Her approach was to pull in 3 people to make up the numbers.

There was no time left to go and carefully select others.

Not to mention that they would be picking from the "trash heap."

Most of the 100 people originally carefully selected would be there just to make up the numbers, and some might not even get much screen time. So, picking from the leftovers would be meaningless.

It was better to just shove in three people to make up the numbers; after all, the total number of 100 trainees could not be changed.

For director Ning Dan, being "easy to control" was very important.

Luo Mo was the one targeted.

The reason was simple: he was good-looking.

There was another reason: Luo Mo was recommended by the Dance Mentor Jiang Ningxi.

Since it is a boy group audition program, it certainly needs celebrities to participate.

"Creating Idols" is wealthy and generous, with the diva Xu Chujing serving as the National Producer Representative, leading the program.

Jiang Ningxi and Shen Yinuo, members of the popular idol girl group Aurora Girls, serve as dance mentors.

The well-known Singer Wei Ran serves as the Music Mentor.

The well-known Rap artist Li Ge serves as the rap mentor.

The reason Luo Mo was recommended by girl group member Jiang Ningxi and obtained the job opportunity was that the two were desk-mates in the past.

At the same time, there was an extra layer of relationship.

Jiang Ningxi was his ex-girlfriend; she had even taken the initiative to write him love letters back then, and she was the one who initiated the confession.

Of course, this was an underground relationship, kept secret.

Therefore, after Jiang Ningxi debuted in the girl group, this matter was never dug up.

She and Luo Mo had long since lost contact, but during a meal with director Ning Dan, she heard about the need for staff and thought of Luo Mo, who had studied Opera diligently since childhood and later learned Classical Dance.

At the same time, in her view, this could be considered giving him some benefits and repayment; after all, Luo Mo had never mentioned their immature romance to anyone from beginning to end, even though, strictly speaking, they were each other's first love.

"My Girl Group First Love Girlfriend?" After merging with the clear memories of the last three years, these big words appeared in Luo Mo's mind when he thought of this matter.

"So when the memories were merging, the ugly duckling who forcibly kissed me in the small woods in the year of graduation was her!" Luo Mo was somewhat speechless.

It must be said, Luo Mo was still very innocent during his student days.

Jiang Ningxi was after his looks, and he was after Jiang Ningxi's good grades...

She wanted to secretly hold hands in the dark with the school-famous handsome guy, while he only wanted the school's top-ranked female academic star to tutor him after class...

This led him to find it both laughable and exasperating whenever he thought about it later.

But who would have known, a girl changes a lot as she grows up.

When she was Dancing to girl group routines, his mind was practically filled with her legs.

"Back then she was clearly thin as a rail, and her hair was yellowish; she looked malnourished," Luo Mo said in his heart.

"But she had great strength, her punches hurt like crazy, and she would even stab people with pens," he couldn't help but smile.

But come to think of it, the former Luo Mo often participated in various school performance activities because he had been learning Opera since he was a child. Going on stage to perform Opera, hitting high notes, plus being tall and handsome, he had always possessed priority in mate selection at school from childhood to adulthood.

It was just that he hadn't blossomed when he was young, which perhaps also had something to do with his delayed development.

As for why the original Luo Mo, who had not wanted to participate in Creating Idols, ended up turning from a staff member into a contestant?

Luo Mo let out a long sigh and said in his heart: "I wanted to refuse loudly, but they really offered too much."

Before he was eliminated from the show, every day he spent muddling through, he could collect an extra day of double wages.

The working conditions for the show's production team were already very good, after all, one had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. With the pay doubled, the salary amount was not to be underestimated.

Of course, this was just a joke, or perhaps only part of the reason.

The reason Luo Mo agreed to come here to work in the first place was also to see if there was an opportunity to perform Opera.

His master, the old man Tong Qinglin, although not a grandmaster in the Opera world, was definitely a renowned expert and someone who had been a 【Leading Actor】.

After getting on in years, Tong Qinglin had been dedicated to the promotion of Opera culture.

As the old man's most unpromising disciple, Luo Mo still valued this opportunity very much; at the very least, if his master could be happy, then everything was worth it!

Moreover, he truly had an incomparable love for Opera.

As for now...

"This situation is actually quite good." Well-versed in the ways of entertainment industry talent shows, Luo Mo already had a long-term plan in his mind.

"Advance to attack, retreat to defend; a perfect start."

"There is no agency company signed behind me, and the Contract temporarily signed with the production team is just an employee contract, only with an additional supplementary agreement signed."

"After all, I am collecting a salary!"

Luo Mo had never imagined that one day he would participate in a talent show, and it would actually be a paid talent show.

You have to know, given the ins and outs of many current talent shows, contestants have to pay out of their own pockets and pay a significant price.

"Amazing!" Luo Mo thought to himself.

Just at this moment, the wake-up bell rang, and it was dawn.

On the other side, the National Producer Representative of Creating Idols, the diva-level Superstar Xu Chujing, woke up on the soft bed of the hotel suite arranged by the production team.

There was a hint of confusion in her eyes.

That night, she had a very long dream.

In the dream, she turned into a Cat named 【Baibaibai】.

(End of chapter)