The production team of the National Beauty Girl Contest released new updates on SNS, and the results of the semi-finals will be announced at 9 pm.
In the lounge of Lingshi Office, three people sat around the sofa, looking at their laptops.
"Yuki-chan, there you are."
Kurosawa Hikaru held the mouse and operated the computer. After 9 o'clock, he refreshed the webpage and finally saw Yuki Ichinose's name on the player introduction page without scrolling up or down.
"Why is it in the first row..."
Ichinose Yuki took a look and suddenly felt a little shy.
Her academic performance has been average since she was a child, and she has never been at the top of the class.
"Number 005?"
When Igarashi Runa saw this situation, she looked at the appearance of the two girls in front of her.
“Is there any problem with the numbering?”
Kurosawa Hikaru noticed that she looked strange and asked.
Seeing this, Ichinose Yuki also looked over with some curiosity.
Before recording the contestant introduction in the afternoon, the official staff explained that each contestant's number was random.
"Although the authorities say that there is no difference in numbers, there is actually a difference. The smaller the number, the more important it is to the authorities. And according to the numbering sequence, the smaller the number, the easier it is for the audience and fans to see it, and the easier it is to attract votes."
Igarashi Runa nodded slightly and explained.
Hearing this, Kurosawa Mitsuru clicked on the page of contestant number 001, which came with a video recording of his personal introduction.
This girl looks to be about 16 years old, with delicate and beautiful facial features, fair skin, long legs, a slender and tall figure, and a height of 168. Although she looks young, she is also pure and moving.
With such superior looks, she must have had countless suitors since she was a child. No matter which school she goes to, she will be the undisputed number one school beauty.
Although there is no strict height requirement for models in Japan, anyone who is 1.6 meters tall can be qualified.
But as long as you are tall, not over the standard 1.8 meters, height is generally a plus.
"She is pretty, but compared to Ms. Ichinose, she is obviously lacking."
Igarashi Runa watched the video and said.
"Do you suspect there is something fishy going on?"
Kurosawa Hikaru holds the same view.
Perhaps beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but leaving subjectivity aside, if we simply rate Yuki based on her appearance, her appearance is close to perfect, with her only one shortcoming being her height.
Yuki's potential was evident from the fact that she was once very popular in the Tokyo circle with two sets of photo albums.
Although Yuki's fame is gradually fading because she hasn't released any new photos for a long time, this is just a period of dormancy before her official debut.
"It's not like there's any shady dealings... The National Beauty Contest is sponsored by many financial groups, so fairness is well guaranteed. It's just that the number can indirectly reveal the opinions of the judging panel."
Igarashi Runa shook her head and explained.
"If there is no conspiracy, why is Yuki-chan ranked fifth?"
Kurosawa Hikaru frowned, feeling a little unhappy.
Although he didn't finish reading the introductions of the four contestants, he could tell from the number 001 that Xiao Yuki was definitely prettier.
"… "
Igarashi Runa fell into deep thought and suddenly turned his head to look at them.
"Could it be because I'm not single? Today when I recorded my introduction video, I said that I'm not single and have a boyfriend, and the judges' expressions changed."
Ichinose Yuki noticed her gaze and suddenly spoke.
After she said this, the other two people looked at her.
Then, the room fell into silence.
I have to admit that this sentence really hits the nail on the head.
No wonder Xiao Yuki, with such excellent appearance, was numbered 005... At least four other contestants were more favored by the judges.
For an artist, the difference in value between being single or not is huge.
In a sense, the fact that Yuki Ichinose was ranked 005 even though she was in a relationship was already a result of the judges' leniency.
"This is a bit bad..."
Igarashi Runa came back to her senses and couldn't help but say.
Originally, in her opinion, it was a sure thing for Yuki Ichinose to win the title of the annual national beauty champion.
But at this moment, she felt unsure.
We have to admit that if a girl has a boyfriend, she will not be that attractive to the opposite sex.
Although it doesn’t matter whether the artist Yuki Ichinose is single or not, it doesn’t matter at all because she has Reiji as her backstage and supporter to pave the way for her.
But for other program teams, it is important whether you are single or not.
If you are not single, that is a big minus.
In addition, because 80% of the audience and fans of the beauty pageant are men, they will lose interest when they find out that Yuki Ichinose is not single.
Perhaps there is almost no possibility of contact between artists and fans in real life, or even no actual contact in their entire lives, but this does not affect the fans' fantasies and dreams of becoming lovers with their idols.
It has to be said that even though she is a top agent who has managed dozens of artists... she has no experience in public relationships with artists.
Even if her artists are in love, they are under her supervision and keep it secret.
"Runa-san, does Yuki-chan still have a chance to win the championship?"
Kurosawa Mitsuru also thought a lot and asked.
"Yes, Ms. Ichinose is still ranked fifth even though she is in a relationship. This shows that in the eyes of the judging panel, her overall score is very high."
Igarashi Runa nodded, but she lacked confidence.
In the past, no winner of any beauty pageant, even if they were not the champions, had ever been in a relationship.
Maybe in this era, love is free and you can date anyone you want.
But for an artist, if you want to fall in love freely, others have no right to stop you. But if others are not interested in you or don’t like you, you also have no right to stop them.
“How can the overall score not be high…”
When Kurosawa Mitsuru heard this, he couldn't help but say.
If Yuki hadn't said that she was in a relationship and had a boyfriend, the moment she decided to participate in the competition, her title of Most Beautiful Girl of the Year would have been a foregone conclusion.
In fact, the program crew probably didn't expect this result.
Because the program team will ask about the contestants' relationship status during the introduction session, in fact, it is to let the contestants express their views on love, which is usually a plus point.
"sorry… "
Yuki Ichinose lowered her head, looking a little depressed.
"Why apologize? It's not your fault."
Kurosawa Hikaru touched her head and comforted her.
"Ms. Ichinose, don't be too depressed. You have a good chance of winning."
Igarashi Runa saw that she was very depressed, and then she came to her senses and immediately cheered up.
"Runa, Runa, how can you show your weakness in front of an artist?"
At the same time, she was also upset and blaming herself.
An agent's duty is to help artists solve their problems. If even she panics and gets scared, the artist's situation will only get worse.
However, she soon realized the problem... It was because she couldn't help but show her weak side in front of Kurosawa, the person she liked.
"Yeah, I'll try my best."
In response to their comfort, Ichinose Yuki came to her senses, forced a smile and nodded, forcing herself to cheer up.
"The criteria for the special award are 40% of the online votes and 60% of the judges' votes... We disrupted the plan and asked Kurosawa to shoot a MV for you first to help you gain popularity and fans."
Igarashi Runa calmed down, thought about it, and came up with a solution.
"Want to disrupt the plan?"
When Yuki Ichinose heard this, she felt even more guilty.
"Although the most ideal situation is that you get the title of the most beautiful girl of the year before debuting, which will be more beneficial to your debut. But plans cannot keep up with changes, so we can change the way we say it."
Seeing that she was in a depressed mood, Igarashi Runa explained while winking at her man.
"Like what?"
Kurosawa Hikaru noticed her eye contact and continued.
"As Zero Hour, please explain why we changed the heroine of the MV this time.
The first reason is that your girlfriend, Adeline, doesn’t want to be an artist.
The second reason is that you think Yuki Ichinose fits the image of the heroine of this MV very well.
As long as you think highly of her and she performs well in the MV, your fans will love her and be influenced by you, and their opinion of her will change greatly.
When that time comes, I will do some more operations and have people play the role of the crowd and recognize that the heroine this time is Yuki Ichinose who is participating in the National Beauty Girl Contest. Not all of them, but at least some of the fans will be attracted to support her. If we can do this, the online voting will be done.”
After Igarashi Runa calmed down, his thoughts changed quickly.
With an ace in hand, you can do whatever you want.
How many fans does Zero Hour have? The number of YouTube subscribers is as high as tens of millions, and the number of Twitter fans is as high as tens of millions. These are not all, because there are still many followers who will not specifically follow Twitter and YouTube.
Once Zero Hour’s fans enter the venue, the voting phase of this competition will be a dimensionality reduction attack.
Because Yuki Ichinose has Zero Toki on her back, it's like she's standing on the shoulders of a giant, and the attention paid to other contestants is simply not on the same level as hers.
"Then let's do it."
Kurosawa Mitsuru thought about it and felt that this method was feasible.
In fact, he had wanted to shoot a MV for Yuki for a long time.
However, Igarashi Runa is making plans for Yuki Ichinose's career and wants to wait until she wins the National Beauty Girl title.
"Ms. Ichinose, the judges should be quite neutral about the fact that you are not single. In other words, you need to perform better in the next round of the competition and get their high scores.
But don't worry, Kurosawa and I will help you."
Igarashi Runa nodded slightly and concluded.
"good."
Even though Yuki Ichinose didn't have much confidence, she didn't want to show weakness, lest they worry about her.
"Don't worry too much. Starting from the next round, the contestants will be able to put on makeup. With Kurosawa's skills and his understanding of you, he can put on makeup for you a few times and blind the judges' eyes, and you'll win."
However, Igarashi Runa has a very accurate grasp of the artist's condition and can see that she is more sensible and does not want to make people worry, she added.
"Right, Kurosawa?"
In order to achieve better effect, she also nudged Kurosawa with her elbow.
"It doesn't matter. I will do it."
Kurosawa Hikaru nodded slightly and said proudly.
Yuki has a good foundation to begin with, and with his mastery of makeup, it is not impossible for him to amaze the world.
"Pfft... Guang bro, you look so arrogant."
Ichinose Yuki laughed out loud at his tone.
After laughing out loud, she felt a lot more relieved when she saw Brother Guang looking confident of winning.
At the same time, as the list of contestants for the National Beauty Contest was finally exposed, it caused a stir on the Internet.
There are a total of 200 contestants who have passed the semi-finals and entered the knockout rounds.
This is a large number, but after several rounds of screening, the average appearance of the contestants who have reached this stage is very high.
Maybe they are not wearing makeup, but each of them has remarkable strengths and can be called a beauty.
For example, some girls have beautiful eyes, beautiful bones, beautiful skin, good-looking facial features overall, good temperament, good figure, and young age... As for a nice voice, this is an additional point.
The elimination round is divided into several stages, the first of which is the voting phase.
At this time, the importance of the numbers before and after is clearly demonstrated.
After all, a higher number means more people can see you and more exposure.
In this day and age, although there are many ways to entertain yourself, they usually cost money.
However, surfing the Internet does not cost much money. As long as you have a mobile phone or a computer and the Internet, you can have a lot of fun.
That's why all kinds of hot news on the Internet will attract many bored and empty netizens.
Beauty pageants are very attractive to male netizens because there are so many girls participating, each with their own strengths, and all the types you like are included.
"This time 001 is still as beautiful as always!"
"003 is so cute."
"004 is my classmate."
Soon, many netizens started discussing the issue on various SNS and Twitter.
What's more, some boys got together offline to discuss it because it was still early.
But not long after, some netizens discovered the situation of 005.
005 is very beautiful. Just looking at the photo, one could even skip the first few people and click directly on her profile.
"005 is Ichinose-senpai, right? Yamada, your goddess is also participating in the competition."
"I saw it. I'm watching it."
"Wow... Ichinose-senpai said she has a boyfriend, is that true?"
"It's a lie, right?"
The first-year high school boy named Yamada also saw the question about his views on love and stood up excitedly.
As a model, Yuki Ichinose was once very popular in major universities in Tokyo.
A school is a small society divided into areas according to grades and cities, such as elementary school, junior high school, college, and university.
In Tokyo's high school area, if students from other schools caused any big news, it would naturally attract attention.
Especially since other schools have a super beautiful girl as a model, and there are also photos, the pictures speak for themselves, which makes it even more exciting.
That's right. After Yuki Ichinose became an overnight sensation on the Internet, many boys from her school and other schools developed admiration for her.
However, at this moment, as someone recognized Yuki Ichinose as a contestant and learned that she had a boyfriend, countless innocent boys felt as if struck by lightning and were instantly disillusioned.
"Damn it, I was deceived by the looks. 005 actually has a boyfriend. It's too early to vote for him unanimously."
Not long after, someone posted comments on SNS, saying that they had been cheated.
You should know that the voting mechanism of the beauty pageant requires that the account be bound to a social account, such as Twitter, SNS, Line, etc. You can only cast 5 votes a day. You can vote for 5 people, or you can vote for all one contestant.
He has cast all his votes and cannot vote for other contestants tonight.
"Me too, I didn't expect she actually has a boyfriend."
This person glanced at the list of contestants and was attracted by 005's appearance at first sight. He felt like he fell in love instantly. He cast his vote without hesitation without even watching the video. But after watching the video, he immediately regretted it.
"Why do you still want to participate in a beauty pageant when you already have a boyfriend?"
"At 18, she's still participating in a beauty pageant, competing with girls who are 14-15 years old. How shameless."
"005 is a student at Qingquan Private High School, Ichinose Yuki. I have met her. She is a hot girl, completely different from the innocent look in the photo (laughs)"
It wasn't just one person, many people started posting malicious comments and the flames started.
The Japanese internet is full of hostility because they have suffered a lot of grievances in life but have nowhere to vent, which makes them feel depressed.
Once there is any disturbance on the Internet, or something they don't like, they will find an outlet to vent.
In reality, when they are scolded, bumped, or bullied by their classmates, they dare not speak loudly. They can only bow their heads, apologize, and walk away timidly.
On the Internet, hiding behind computers and various apps, they dare not curse at their enemies, let alone those who are taller or stronger than them. Even if Tyson comes, they would not dare to say a few words.
The more arrogant these keyboard warriors are on the Internet, the more miserable their lives will be in real life.
Igarashi Runa had anticipated this situation and didn't even bother to read the comments. Instead, she asked:
"Kurosawa, the first round of voting will last for 7 days and will end next Friday. Then, based on the popularity of the votes, the top 50 contestants will be selected from the 200 contestants and they will be allowed to appear on various programs. During this time, can you shoot a new MV
"Small problem."
Kurosawa Hikaru nodded.
Maybe it is troublesome for other people to shoot MVs, but it is very easy for him. After all, he is a singer, a director, and a photographer. Although the workload is more, it will be easier to implement during the shooting process.
The most important thing is that he is not short of money now, so he doesn’t have to worry about insufficient funds when shooting MVs.
"It's best to shoot and post it before next Wednesday. There is a limit on the number of votes you can make."
Igarashi Runa knew that he was very experienced in shooting MVs and had strong filming skills, so she nodded slightly and reminded him.
"good."
Kurosawa Hikaru nodded.
As for Yuki Ichinose, the youngest, she didn't say a word and just followed their instructions.
She just needs to do whatever these two people say. Brother Guang and Miss Igarashi will not harm her anyway.
They chatted for a while, and as it was getting late, approaching 10 o'clock in the evening, Igarashi Runa decided to take them home.
After leaving the office, Igarashi Runa drove along the way while admonishing:
"Ms. Ichinose, have a good rest when you go back and wait for my notification. If you have any questions, you can contact me. Also, don't read the comments about you on the Internet. I will send someone to deal with it."
Female artists are very vulnerable to attacks on the Internet.
As an artist, you must be mentally prepared to endure the heat.
It is a good thing if you don't take online comments to heart, but if you are a person who takes things too seriously, there are many artists who have been driven to suicide by the anger.
However, suicide is too extreme after all. Many more artists retired from the society under the pressure of Yanshang and faded into obscurity.
"Thank you for your reminder. I understand."
Yuki Ichinose, who was sitting in the back seat, had experience with this and nodded slightly.
When the first set of photos taken by Brother Guang for her suddenly became popular on the Internet, she was once cyber-bullied.
Because she had been the subject of false rumors and scandals in the past, she attracted a lot of doubts and criticisms from many people.
However, facing such an attack, she felt nothing.
Perhaps the words were heartbreaking, but she had experienced school bullying when she was in junior high school.
That's why she has a strong resistance to these things and is not easily defeated.
No matter how overwhelming the malice of people is, she will never be defeated, and she will never have the idea of committing suicide to end it all.
The people who supported her in the beginning were her parents, but now, there is one more person who is keeping her going, and that is Brother Guang.