Chapter 599: 407. Towards a Bigger World
"I have to say, I’ve seen quite a few clips of Xinxin crying."
After the clinking of glasses, Mr. Lu had no intention of participating in the next round of the celebration party.
After saying goodbye to various influential figures across different fields and industries, Lu Jincheng quietly left the scene with the two "family members" present at the celebration.
"Mr. Lu~ I’m not a crybaby!"
"Sometimes, I really can’t take it."
In the latter half of the gathering, when there was no need to wear a social mask, conversations with family felt easier.
Star City is also known as the "sleepless city," with businesses open at any hour of the night.
The three of them turned off the roadside and found a small bar with private rooms to sit down and chat.
Both Mou Keyan and Sun Xin, the slightly famous female streamer and the ordinary female college student, were gradually adapting to their identity shifts.
Walking on the roadside, even at scattered barbecue stands, they could potentially be recognized.
Look! That’s the face from the reality show!
"You have no idea, the editing in the show doesn’t reveal at all that we’re often required to sing and dance non-stop; it’s simply inhuman."
At the recently concluded celebration with a gathering of elites, Sun Xin raised her hand and summoned a server to bring two more plates of snacks.
She hadn’t eaten enough.
"It’s really exhausting."
Mou Keyan nodded.
"I heard from Director Sun that the original design of the show wasn’t like this; it changed later."
"It’s an extreme test; this is the most extreme and unreasonable scenario you’ll encounter in this industry."
One of the core aspects of "Goddess 101" is testing people’s coping mechanisms in extreme environments.
No singer-dancer has ever sung and danced from start to finish, yet the theme song of "Goddess 101" demands just that from all the girls.
Sun Xin had never faced this type of pressure before; her coping mechanism was often crying.
Unable to learn the theme song, she cried; when the wardrobe requirements were too short, revealing her stomach, she cried; unable to wear contacts or draw her eyebrows well, she cried.
Netizens accused her of using crying to gain sympathy, but she felt misunderstood; it was just a habitual way to release her emotions.
Her roommate who joined her on "Goddess 101" initially rushed to comfort her when she saw Sun Xin crying, but later got used to it.
Mou Keyan believed that crying, shopping, drinking, and having sex are all the same.
They’re all ways to regulate emotions.
[Xinxin, cry if you want, my boss said Bill Gates and Jobs both loved to cry.]
But "Goddess 101" is not Golden Stone Media; there’s no considerate boss here who thinks it’s okay for girls to cry.
The main theme here is hard work, competition, resilience; no one wants the label of being weak and incompetent.
Even under great pressure, you have to find ways to release it away from the cameras.
"And the show’s editing is deliberate; clearly, Xinxin isn’t the only one crying."
When there were no outsiders, Mou Keyan always performed some habitual actions.
Once the server had closed the private room door, she got up and sat next to Lu Jincheng, taking tools to open the bottle, slowly easing the bubbling alcohol.
She casually rolled up her sleeves, helping him remove stray edamame shells from the snack.
"Some people lay towels on the bathroom floor, gathering five or six people to talk for hours and comfort each other; some lock the bathroom door to cry alone the whole night."
Contestants eventually realized that if someone disappeared for a long time, go check the bathroom.
Even Mou Keyan, who everyone acknowledges as a strong competitor, faced moments of emotional discomfort.
The seventh episode had a "You Don’t Know Me" performance segment, which initially left her feeling lost.
She couldn’t think of anything about herself, as a public platform streamer, that others didn’t know.
The show suggested a direction, which she found extremely awkward, but followed through with anyway; the result wasn’t great.
The internal discomfort and awkwardness went unnoticed by both directors and audiences.
As a high-ranking contestant, aside from training, Mou Keyan often had to cooperate with the show’s sponsors for advertisement shoots.
When there were many ads, she’d angrily close her dorm room door, curse the overwhelming ads, then still have to go shoot.
Other contestants expressed envy and sighed.
[Miao Miao surely realizes these shoots and interviews benefit her.]
[She just finds it exhausting.]
"During this time... it’s been hard."
Even though the words had been spoken several times at the celebration, changing sides at the toast occasion altered Lu Jincheng’s tone entirely.
One time it was polite, the other sympathetic.
He extended a hand, first tapping Mou Keyan’s hand gently, then softly patting her shoulder.
With 24-hour continuous live streaming, some people couldn’t handle being under constant surveillance and blocked dormitory cameras with hats.
Initially, when there were many people, this kind of rebellion was tacitly allowed.
But as rounds progressed, and fewer remained, the production stopped tolerating to ensure enough footage.
Whenever dormitory cameras were blocked, the monitoring room would call to have them uncovered.
The program wanted participants to realize this was irresponsible behavior towards themselves.
At the elevator entrance of the contestants’ dormitory, a long paper strip was posted, written in black pen: A true goddess dares to face the camera’s shooting.
Turning left into the corridor, there was another notice on the wall: Please do not block dormitory cameras, facing consequences of no reality show footage on your own, concerning your future, consider carefully.
"Any game rules exert pressure on contestants; I view this as your first step towards becoming entertainers."
This brutal competition, with "battle royale" vibes, is a baptism the girls must endure to establish themselves in the entertainment industry.