Chapter 44: The Bet

Time passed quickly; a week had already gone by since Luo Mo finished communicating with the heads of the Prop Department and the special effects team.

The first half of the second episode of *Creating Idols* was officially broadcast on two major video platforms at eight o'clock on Saturday night.

The audience was still very much looking forward to the trainees' first public performance stage.

However, Luo Mo's team's *Big Fish* was placed in the second half of the second episode, so their brilliant performance would not be seen this week.

On the internet, the clamor for hearing Luo Mo perform Opera and play the suona was still quite high, and it had not subsided with the passage of time.

Meanwhile, the evil organization known as 【Mo Sheng Ren】 was also recruiting and expanding during this period.

To be precise, it wasn't really that they were actively recruiting people; it was that people kept falling into the pit on their own.

As for Luo Mo himself, what was he doing at this moment?

He was leading his entire team in working out.

If they made a mistake, they would be punished with push-ups.

Military training in a talent show—terrifying.

Luo Mo had already finished the new song for the second public performance and had assigned the parts to his teammates.

All the climax sections of this song were sung by him alone, as the others simply couldn't sing them.

Tong Shu could barely manage it, but the flavor wasn't authentic enough.

To sing it with the right feeling, he still needed to strengthen his Basic Skills in Opera.

As for the Prop Department, they were preparing the performance costumes according to Luo Mo's Requirement. The special effects team was working on the stage effects.

After all, Luo Mo had said he wanted a great fire, but during a public performance, it wouldn't do to set a real fire...

This time, the live audience would double from the original 500, with 1,000 people present to vote.

If any performance accident occurred, the show would be finished.

Fortunately, technology was advanced now, and Ning Dan was willing to spend money on the stage; the resulting effect would definitely be better than real fire.

During the daily practice of the 【Anonymous Team】, all the celebrity mentors except Xu Chujing had come to the training room to visit.

Everyone wanted to get a sneak peek, but Luo Mo insisted on keeping them in suspense.

Just then, the door to the training room was pushed open again, and Shen Yinuo and Jiang Ningxi walked in.

As soon as she entered, Shen Yinuo fanned the air in front of her eyes with her right hand and muttered, "Scared me to death, I was burned by the sight."

Jiang Ningxi also had a complicated expression, as if she had seen some uncomfortable scene in another training room.

Shen Yinuo looked at Luo Mo and said, "Luo Mo, you guys be careful. We just went to see Shen Mingliu's side; their group is going to pull out a big move this time."

"Oh? What big move?" Luo Mo asked.

Although Shen Yinuo treated Luo Mo as one of her own, as a show mentor, she couldn't reveal too much and could only say, "Anyway, they've gone all out with their dance moves. When Jiang Jiang and I walked in just now, they were busy showing off their abs."

Once Luo Mo heard this, he roughly understood what it was.

It was just lifting their shirts, exposing their abs, and then shaking their waists and hips.

Luo Mo smiled casually, reached out and touched his own abs a few times, and said, "What's so rare about that?"

He had practiced Opera diligently since he was a child and later learned Classical Dance, so his physique was excellent.

After the two souls merged, he also attached great importance to his physical management and was still leading the Anonymous Team in doing push-ups.

But he had no intention of showing this stuff off on stage.

Jiang Ningxi and Shen Yinuo glanced at the right hand Luo Mo had placed on his abdomen and quickly looked away.

Jiang Ningxi said, "Let's not talk about that. By the way, how is your second public performance stage coming along?"

"Not bad, you can look forward to it," Luo Mo said with a smile.

Just then, a knock on the door sounded, and the assistants of the two girl group members poked their heads in and said, "Um... the milk tea is here."

The little rich girl Shen Yinuo clapped her hands and said, "Everyone take a break first, Jiang Jiang and I are treating everyone to milk tea!"

Cheers soon erupted in the training room, and Tong Shu and the others all said politely, "Thank you, Teacher Shen, Teacher Jiang."

Only Luo Mo was stunned for a moment and said, "You're only treating us?"

Shen Yinuo rolled her eyes at him and said, "How could that be! Are we that stingy? Of course, we're treating everyone."

"Oh, I see, haha, hahaha." Luo Mo gave an awkward laugh and walked over, intending to just grab a cup.

As it turned out, someone was faster than him.

Jiang Ningxi took a cup from the bag and handed it to Luo Mo, pretending to be casual, saying, "Here, full sugar."

She remembered very clearly that Luo Mo liked to eat sweets back in middle school.

Once, when she was tutoring him, she brought a small bag of candies, and Luo Mo ate them all.

Later, every time she tutored him, she would bring a small bag of candies.

Luo Mo took the milk tea, looked at it, and said, "Is there a slightly sweetened one? I can't really drink anything too sweet right now."

Jiang Ningxi was slightly stunned; her hand holding the milk tea and straw froze in the air for two seconds, and then, as if nothing had happened, she put the milk tea back into the bag and picked out a slightly sweetened one.

Shen Yinuo, who was standing beside her, rummaged through the milk tea bag for a long time, then took out a cup and said, "Jiang Jiang, here! Your favorite strawberry thick-milk tea! No sugar added!"

Jiang Ningxi took the milk tea and glanced at Luo Mo with a guilty conscience.

Back then, it was a cup of strawberry milk tea that made her work like an Ox for Luo Mo, tutoring him in math for a month.

So many years had passed; milk tea was constantly upgrading, becoming more high-end and more expensive.

But she still loved drinking the strawberry flavor.

She was afraid Luo Mo would overthink it.

But Luo Mo on the other side was gulping it down, completely oblivious to this. He just felt that in the middle of summer, this slightly sweetened iced milk tea was really refreshing!

Of course, it would be even better if there were iced cola!

This made Jiang Ningxi secretly heave a sigh of relief.

But what followed was a faint sense of loss.

"So, he doesn't remember."

………

………

Time flies like an arrow, the sun and moon like a shuttle.

The speed at which time passes is just as strange as this saying.

In the blink of an eye, the day of the second public performance of *Creating Idols* arrived.

The three teams that won in the previous public performance were all scheduled to perform later.

The leaders of the three teams went on stage to draw lots to determine the performance order.

Luo Mo had decent luck and drew a middle spot, while Shen Mingliu's team would perform after him.

Logically speaking, the later one performs, the better; in a variety show like *I Am a Singer*, the singers place extreme importance on the performance order, and it has become a classic segment of the program.

But Luo Mo was quite indifferent; a real man never fears any risk.

On the contrary, upon seeing a risk warning, a real man's choice is mostly: There's a risk? If there's a risk, then it's the right choice!

Then he presses 【Continue to Access】.

At this moment, the five celebrity mentors were the first to appear on the public performance stage.

Xu Chujing, standing in the C-Position, still possessed a Peerless aura, wearing a black gown, her stilettos clicking on the stage as if it were her own personal runway show.

——The top of the food chain is the big sister.

Even though it was just an entrance segment, it gave people a feeling of being soul-stirring on the spot.

Jiang Ningxi and Shen Yinuo were full of youthful vitality, though Jiang Ningxi had a cold and aloof temperament, while Shen Yinuo was full of energy, constantly standing on her tiptoes and waving at the audience.

As for Wei Ran and Li Ge, the old rule applies—skipped.

The five celebrity mentors stood in the center of the stage and began to announce the rules for the second public performance.

This public performance involved 9 teams competing for live votes, followed by a ranking.

Based on the ranking, they would receive varying degrees of vote rewards on the 【Popularity Support Ranking】.

If they won first place, each person would receive 200,000 votes, and the team leader and C-Position could receive an additional 100,000 votes.

For someone like Luo Mo, who was both the team leader and the C-Position, he could get 400,000 votes directly after taking first place!

In reality, for popular contestants, unless the rankings were very close, a gap of tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand votes would not affect the ranking.

But for those trainees with average popularity whose rankings were at the back, these were life-saving votes!

Today was the second public performance, and tomorrow the second half of the second episode of *Creating Idols* would be broadcast.

Then, after another week, the first wave of Elimination would arrive.

For many, this public performance was their last stand!

Sadly, in terms of timing, by the time this performance show was broadcast on the online platform, those who were eliminated might have already left this place. For many, this was still their final stage, and could even be considered an Elimination grand show.

Amidst the cheers and screams of the live audience, the recording of the second public performance officially began.

In the waiting room, Shen Mingliu's team and Luo Mo's Anonymous Team were sitting in the same row, separated only by an aisle.

Shen Mingliu glanced at Luo Mo several times, and finally, he spoke up: "Luo Mo."

"Something up?" Luo Mo turned his head and looked at him lazily.

Shen Mingliu looked at his relaxed expression and felt inexplicably annoyed, saying: "For this public performance, how about our two teams make a bet?"

Luo Mo looked at him and said: "Let's hear it."

If it were some boring bet, he would suggest they bet on the daily yogurt.

Poor Tong Shu hadn't been able to drink any since he met Luo Mo.

Shen Mingliu looked at him and said in a deep voice: "Friendship first, competition second, so let's not bet on anything too substantial. Let's just compare our final rankings; the losing team will wash the dishes for the winning team for a week, how about that?"

Luo Mo was amused when he heard this.

"Hey! Tong Shu, someone is trying to steal your job." He slapped Tong Shu on the back.

(End of chapter)