"Let's practice first. I'll ask you a question first: why did you come to participate in this competition?" Wei Sheng casually grabbed the potato chip bucket next to him and used it as a microphone, shoving it to Jiang Cancan's mouth.
"Um~ because I want to earn money to build a house for my family, and the school cafeteria is really dilapidated. Everyone has to squat on the ground to eat. I see that your cafeteria has tables. I want to win the first prize to build a big cafeteria for the school, with tables, chairs and electric fans!"
"Good! That's the answer! But you have to remove the words 'first place.' Just say you want to use the prize money to build a cafeteria for the school and a house for your family." Wei Sheng put away the potato chip can with satisfaction. At this moment, the crew members came over and took Jiang Cancan to the live broadcast room.
However, because the child was too young, Jiang Xiaoman, as a "family member," was allowed to accompany the child so that if the child cried or was too nervous to face the camera, the parents could be arranged to comfort the child in time.
"I'd rather go instead~" Wei Sheng was a little jealous. He already knew that Jiang Xiaoman was at most Jiang Cancan's "distant nephew", while he was Jiang Cancan's future direct senior brother.
Tens of thousands of people were already waiting in the live stream room. Many of them were fans of the TV Queen. To put it simply, they had practically watched Jian Ni grow from a fertilized egg to where she is now. A significant number of fans regarded Jian Ni as their own virtual daughter. Now that their daughter was about to debut, the fans were naturally going all out to help their daughter debut in the center position!
Jiang Xiaoman led Jiang Cancan into the live broadcast room. Soon after, the other three contestants also entered. One of them, with exquisite makeup, wearing a gorgeous princess dress and a small crown, was Jian Ni, the eldest daughter of TV Queen Ma Yuenan. Another was a little girl with pigtails and wearing a blue retro navy uniform named Zhuo Siwei, and a cool boy wearing a baseball cap named Yan Ge. Jiang Xiaoman had seen both of them before; they were quite famous online when they were very young.
Zhuo Siwei comes from a family with a strong tradition in traditional Chinese opera. Her grandparents and mother were all involved in the opera world, and she herself started learning Huangmei Opera at the age of four. Her personal account already has more than five million followers.
His strict parents run a street dance training class. He started learning street dance from his parents when he was just learning to walk. He has also learned guitar, piano and modern dance. He is an all-rounder among this group of contestants, and his personal account has more than three million followers.
Looking at it this way, it turns out that the only real non-celebrity here is their aunt... Jiang Xiaoman suddenly felt a little nervous.
Although he also thought Jiang Cancan sang very well, this kind of talent show competition is not just about singing skills. Moreover, in terms of singing skills alone, all three of them have been exposed to music since childhood or have received systematic vocal training. Jiang Cancan has not even attended two proper music classes... Jiang Xiaoman knows Langshan Elementary School's music classes all too well. It's just a bunch of students singing along with the teacher. If the teacher is off-key, the students will follow suit and sing off-key too!
And then there's the voting segment. These guys can easily outshine them just by having their fans campaign for votes! Even if he mobilizes everyone he knows and sends out messages in every group chat to ask for votes, it still won't be a fraction of what these guys get!
Jiang Xiaoman sat anxiously below, while on stage, the live broadcast had already begun.
Yan Ge, the boy in the baseball cap, was the first to appear. He had participated in two National Children's Street Dance Competitions and had many loyal fans online. As soon as he appeared, the barrage of comments started flooding the screen. Yan Ge also had a lot of experience in dealing with the media and spoke in a cool manner. Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but sigh, "When I was Yan Ge's age, I was probably still feeding pigs, right?"
The second person to appear was his aunt.
Jiang Cancan was a little nervous when she sat down opposite the reporter. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her nephew, Jiang Xiaoman, making a "potato" gesture at her, and she immediately burst out laughing.
That smile really brought out the beauty of Ms. Hua's carefully drawn eyebrows and eyes. Even the well-traveled reporter was momentarily stunned. This child's smile is truly beautiful!
Chapter 56
Humans are naturally tolerant and fond of beautiful people and things. Jiang Cancan's smile softened even the reporters who came with a mission. When they asked the producer those sob stories, they were very careful and kept glancing at the tissue box next to them, ready to hand the little girl a tissue at any time.
To everyone's surprise, Jiang Cancan actually laughed—
"It's not hard at all. Actually, walking to school on the mountain path is quite fun, and you can even earn money."
"How do you make money? There are lots of bamboo shoots by the roadside in spring. I would carry a basket and a machete to school, cut the bamboo shoots, take them home, and dry them into dried bamboo shoots. I could sell them for more than ten yuan a pound at the market."
“There are mushrooms in the mountains in summer and autumn. I pick them and bring them home for my grandma to dry. Then I take them to the market to sell as dried goods. One pound of dried wild mushrooms can be exchanged for two pounds of pork or four pounds of lard.”
"Winter is no fun. The roads are hard to walk on, and you often fall down. Once I left my hat in the classroom, and I went to school in the morning with my hair all white. By the time I got to school, my hair was whiter than the principal's, haha."
"The school conditions are terrible? It's much better than our home! It's a three-story building, and it's spotless. Everyone cleans it every day!"
"And going to school was so much fun. Our school didn't have a cafeteria before. Everyone used to bring their own mineral water bottles, fill one with corn porridge from home, and bring two roasted potatoes. There were no side dishes. Later, the principal saved up money to build a cafeteria, but he still didn't have money to buy vegetables, so we grew our own vegetables, raised pigs, raised chickens, and so on. The principal didn't ask us to pay for meals, and we brought whatever we had at home."
"Monday was the happiest day. Everyone brought groceries from home to the kitchen. Once, one of my classmates even carried a fish as long as a school desk!"
“My family didn’t have money to buy fish, but one time a stream in the mountains flooded, and I caught a whole bucket of stone crabs! I brought them to school on Monday, and everyone was overjoyed. The principal even fried them for us, and they were so delicious!”
...
Children's world is sometimes really simple. They have loving elders and playmates, and every day brings different kinds of joy.
Although she no longer had a mother and her father no longer cared about her, Jiang Cancan didn't feel that her life was too hard because she had a grandmother and a principal who wholeheartedly protected her.
All she can remember are the different scenery and joys she experiences on her way to and from school every day.
Jiang Cancan was all smiles on her side of the camera, not even using the tissues the production team had prepared beforehand. On the other side of the camera, her sentimental fans were already sobbing uncontrollably while clutching their tissue boxes.
"There's only her grandmother, who has poor eyesight, and her younger sister at home. She has to walk for more than an hour along the mountain path to go to school by herself. She must be scared!"
"Her life is even harder than mine, a person in their twenties. What about her parents? Did they go to work?"
"Please check out the Langshan Elementary School video account! Jiang Cancan is so pitiful, sob sob. Her father remarried and ran away with his new wife. He hasn't come home for years and doesn't send any money home. Cancan's family can't even afford a pot to cook rice."
"You absolutely must check out Langshan Elementary School's video channel! Although Jiang Cancan's father isn't human, her other father, the principal, is incredibly kind!"
"Crying and laughing... So you participated in the competition to win prize money to build a cafeteria for the school? Haha~ Okay, I'll definitely vote for you!"
"Ask this question? Is the production team trying to stir up trouble? What do you mean by 'have you thought about using the prize money to help other underprivileged children'? Isn't Jiang Cancan already struggling enough? Her family doesn't even have a rice cooker!"
"Director, come out and take your punishment! Can Can, don't listen to them. There are many, many people who love you. Your scumbag father isn't worth your tears! Don't cry! You're not miserable at all!"
"That's right! Don't cry! Jiang Cancan, remember this, your good fortune is yet to come!"
Jiang Cancan didn't cry, but the netizens who comforted her cried like a Paw Patrol.
At the end, Zhuo Siwei, the third performer, with tears in her eyes, hugged her tightly: "Can Can, I have so many pots at home, how many do you want? I'll definitely bring them to you tomorrow, waaaaah~"
The mischievous production team not only arranged a tear-jerking interview, but also played a video of Wei Sheng and his friends visiting Jiang Cancan's home. Seeing the video of Jiang's dilapidated thatched house and a kitchen with a large hole, and the scene where they had to boil water in a porridge pot because the iron pot was broken, the children and parents backstage fell silent.
Let alone adults, even young children couldn't help but tear up when they saw this. While Jiang Cancan was smiling and sharing with the reporter the interesting things that happened on her way to school and at school, what they heard was about the potatoes her family had to carefully budget for every meal, the wild mushrooms she picked up to sell for money instead of eating them herself, and the school cafeteria, which had no oil or fat, but at least provided them with a hot meal...
There were cameras in the live stream room. As soon as Jiang Cancan entered, she was showered with affection by the parents and the female staff of the program. At that moment, it was as if the parents were not there to accompany their own children to the competition, but to accompany Jiang Cancan to participate in the competition. There were even two fathers shouting from the side: "Go Cancan! We'll campaign for you!"
Jian Ni sat on the sofa, watching her mother and grandmother go to comfort the girl from the mountains. She felt a little uncomfortable, but when she thought of Jiang Cancan's home in the video and her father who didn't care about the sisters' lives, Jian Ni felt like she was about to break apart.
Given her usual temper, anyone who tries to take things from her will definitely suffer the consequences.
But Jiang Cancan was different. She had no idea, and hadn't even thought about, what winning this competition meant. She was only thinking about the mere 500,000 yuan prize money!
Jian Ni really wanted to say, "I'll give you the 500,000, you should hurry back to Langshan and build your house..." But she just couldn't bring herself to say that to Jiang Cancan!
After a long pause, until everyone in the waiting area had expressed their condolences and Zhuo Siwei, the third person to go on stage, was almost finished with his interview, Jian Ni finally managed to utter a single sentence—
"It's just a cafeteria, right? My mom has over 50 million followers. If each of them donates one yuan, it's enough for you to build a new school. Give me your school's account later, and I'll have my mom's followers donate to you, okay?"
Holy crap!
The entire waiting area was stunned.
Actress Ma Yuenan's expression changed drastically. Her beautiful eyes flashed with anger, and she beckoned to her assistant, who quickly ran over to cover the camera, her face pale.
Fortunately, the waiting area is separated from the live broadcast by an aisle, which has good soundproofing, so they definitely can't hear what's going on here. The problem now is how to get the production team to delete this part of the conversation they filmed.
The phrase "asking fans to donate" is inherently controversial, especially since the fans of the TV Queen are not the fans of her daughter. Jian Ni's words make it sound like her mother's fans are her slaves, and she can just ask them to donate with a single sentence... To put it bluntly, no matter how rich your fans are, can they be as rich as your mother, the TV Queen? Your mother earns tens of millions for just one drama. How many lifetimes would it take an ordinary person to earn that much money?
If you're so capable, why don't you get your mom to donate money?
Seeing her mother's murderous gaze, Jian Ni was startled and subconsciously felt that she might have said something wrong again.
Jian Ni almost burst into tears the moment Ma Yuenan pinched her arm so hard.
Jiang Cancan had never seen anything like this before. Looking left and right, she noticed that Jian Ni seemed about to cry. Although she didn't know why, she still instinctively offered to comfort her.
"Um, you're not eighteen yet, are you? Principal Dad said our school doesn't accept donations from minors."
"The principal said that the students' money comes from their parents, and it's not easy for them to save up their pocket money..."
"Pfft~" Someone burst out laughing first, and Ma Yuenan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but laugh as well.
What do kids know? As long as the production team doesn't edit the footage recklessly and cause trouble, this matter should end here.
However, Jiang Cancan's words gave Ma Yuenan a convenient way out: her daughter, being a minor, couldn't donate, but her own mother could.
“Ni Ni, I remember your dad promised you that if you could make it into the top ten, he would reward you with a new bag. Why don’t you cash out the reward and donate it to Can Can’s school in your dad’s name? That way, it won’t violate the principal’s rules.”
"Yes, yes! It's settled then, I'm sure I'll make it into the top ten! Can Can, you wait, my dad is very rich." Jian Ni breathed a sigh of relief and quickly followed the staff to the live broadcast room next door.
“Can Can, don’t mind her. My daughter Ni Ni has been spoiled since she was little and doesn’t know how to talk. We’ve never asked our fans to donate money to us…” Ma Yuenan sighed inwardly and began to clean up the mess for her daughter.
To be honest, it's not entirely the daughter's fault. She and her husband have always been very busy, and their daughter was raised by her maternal grandmother. Grandparents love their grandchildren more, and since her mother rarely sees her daughter, she spoils her granddaughter rotten. She never asks for anything and never considers how others feel when she speaks or acts. To put it nicely, she's heartless; to put it bluntly, she has very low emotional intelligence.
Ma Yuenan's words were less directed at Jiang Cancan and more at the staff in the waiting area and other parents. After all, the competition had only just begun, and she didn't want her daughter to leave an impression of being arrogant, domineering, and lawless just because she had many fans.
"I don't mind, Auntie. What's wrong with having a lot of fans? I'm so envious of you having so many fans. Auntie, you don't know, our school has started a video account. The principal told us to do well. If more people click on our videos, we can earn money and buy meat. I wish I had that many fans."
"I don't want everyone to donate money, I just want everyone to watch our school's videos." Jiang Cancan's tone was full of envy.
That's over 50 million fans!
"It's okay, Can Can, I've followed your school's account!" the cameraman said with a smile, trying to comfort her.
For some reason, this little girl has a magical quality. When you see her, you can't help but want to be nice to her and don't want to see her look disappointed.
"What's your school's video account?" The TV queen took out her phone.
"Sister Nan, it's this!" Another cameraman next to her also took out his phone and showed the video account of Langshan Elementary School.
"Hehe~ I've had all the members of our text and image team follow your video account." The cameraman who went with us to Langshan to film chuckled.
"Wait!" Ma Yuenan skillfully swiped her phone and logged into her Weibo account—
"Dear little pumpkins, would you like to meet Ni Ni's new friends? Click to follow and get a group of cuties (link to video account attached)!"
It's impossible to get fans to donate money, but it's possible to ask everyone to follow Langshan Primary School's video account and contribute some views. This way, we can repay Jiang Cancan's favor, and if the production team deliberately stirs things up later, this incident will prevent netizens and fans from only listening to the production team's side of the story.
Jiang Xiaoman knew that the TV Queen had many fans, but she did not expect that her casual Weibo post would have such a huge impact—in just one night, Langshan Elementary School's video account gained more than one million followers!
This isn't the kind of "friendship" zombie followers, because the latest support video from "Langshan Primary School Jiang Cancan Fan Club" has surprisingly garnered over 300,000 comments!
This idea came from two student teachers.
This is the first time in history that a student from their school has participated in a national competition! Although Jiang Cancan is an ordinary person, she can't be too shabby; she still needs the support she deserves.
So, the PE teacher went up the mountain and picked a lot of wildflowers to make flower wreaths for the cheerleading team; the music teacher urgently rehearsed and organized a short video of "one inspirational song per person".
Watching the children in the mountains waving flower wreaths and singing in slightly accented dialects to bless their classmates, this kind of support is rarely seen by netizens. To put it simply, as a new fan in the comments section put it, it's both rustic and makes me want to cry.
These kids from the mountains don't know what it means to pick someone up at the airport, spend money on in-game purchases, or provide fan support. They just want to cheer on their friends in their own way.
Looking back at the previous videos, there were pictures of pig farming, chicken raising, potato harvesting, honey harvesting... Goodness! I'm completely hooked!
This school is a bit run-down, but! From the principal to the students, even the principal's nephew is hilarious!
They can't wait to see Jiang Cancan win the prize money and use it to build a cafeteria at her school... Of course, to win the competition, she has to make it into the top ten. Jiang Cancan, an ordinary person, can't get any votes? No problem, she still has these enthusiastic netizens, right?
Chapter 57
The Best Actress never expected that all she did was promote the school's video account, and netizens actually found the voting link for the show.
Watching Jiang Cancan's votes soar from the last page to the first page at lightning speed, Ma Yuenan couldn't help but facepalm.
Actually, she really doesn't care about this singing competition champion, she's a TV queen. Although she hasn't had any outstanding representative works in recent years, she has been in the industry for decades, and her husband's family is rich and powerful. If her daughter really wants to debut, there are plenty of ways, she doesn't have to rely on a local TV station competition.