"Hey … these are the lyrics, right?" Oscar's heart was filled with thousands of beasts, but he had to hold it in. He could not say it out loud. "And you didn't change a single word … You copied it exactly! Even if it's an old song, many people have heard it before … Even if not, after the show is aired, people will find it on the internet … "
"What's wrong?" Feng Bujue looked at Oscar and asked nonchalantly.
"Er … Bujue …" Oscar replied. "Are you sure … you want to submit this?" Since the audience had not seen what Feng Bujue had written, Oscar thought there was still room to salvage the situation. He tried his best to signal Brother Jue with his eyes and said in a strange tone, "The things that you've written … look quite familiar …" He glanced at the camera. "We still have plenty of time … Do you want to change it?"
What he meant was, I already know that this is not your original song, so you should change it as soon as possible.
But Feng Bujue did not appreciate it.
"Of course, it looks familiar," Brother Jue replied with a relaxed expression. "These are the lyrics."
'He admitted it! He just said it in front of the camera! 'Oscar roared internally. "Is that really okay?" He quickly turned around to look at the director for help, waiting for further instructions.
"Continue recording, it's fine," Fei Ran said through the communication channel. "The rules did not say that it's not allowed."
"Haha … Bujue, you are quite honest." Oscar had no choice but to try to come up with something nice to say.
But … Brother Jue still did not appreciate it.
"I was too lazy to think about it myself," Feng Bujue replied instantly. "So, I just copied something that fits the theme."
Once that was said, even the audience did not know how to react …
'What is this kid planning? 'Oscar thought to himself.' You're not only digging your own grave, you're shameless as well … '
At that moment, Oscar had already turned his face away from the camera. As someone who had a good sense of the camera, he did that on purpose because he did not want his expression to appear on screen.
"In any case, the rules allow it." Feng Bujue added. He still had his hands behind his head and assumed a rather arrogant posture. "I don't think this is any different from quoting the classics, is it?"
"The difference is huge …" Oscar said internally. "Quoting the classics is to explain the logic, but you're copying the whole thing without a single line of your own words …"
"Hmm … Haha …" Oscar laughed awkwardly. "Fine … We'll see the result later." He had no choice but to get this over with with.
The photographer, Xiao Wu, was quite smart. When he saw this, he turned the camera around and aimed it at the other writers.
He Bujue's words, "He Bujue," He Bujue, "He Bujue," he announced, "He Bujue," Bujue's, "Oscar, Bujue, Bujue, Bujue, Bujue, and Bu'T?" Maybe we can find some clues from their facial expressions … "He cooperated with Xiao Wu's filming and said this, successfully diverting the audience's attention.
….
Seven minutes passed very quickly. One after another, writers clicked on the submit button on the screen.
Oscar had been trying to find something to talk about during this period. He said things that appeared to be related to the show but were actually meaningless. Even so, he would not stay silent for more than ten seconds. That was the mark of a professional.
"We don't have much time left … Let us count down from ten seconds …" When there were only ten seconds left on the screen, Oscar opened his lips to say, "Ten … nine … eight … seven … six …" He counted down to ten on the screen and added, "Time's up!"
A five-second background music that was commonly used on the show started, and the lights on the stage flickered.
The cameraman, Xiao Wu, adjusted his position and prepared to follow the host.
"Alright … It's time for the reveal." Oscar listened to the relevant information that came through the earpiece as he said, "Those who are observant already know the order in which we will announce the articles." He paused. "I will not beat around the bush … We will start with the first submission …" He turned around. "Contestant Bujue, please start." Then, he led the camera to Brother Jue.
At the same time, the content that Feng Bujue had written appeared on the screen.
The audience chattered among themselves, but there was no applause.
Oscar recited the whole lyric and said, "Hmm … It is indeed well written." He looked at Brother Jue. "It fits the two keywords' love 'and' time 'quite well." He changed the topic and said with a smile, "Unfortunately … this is not something that you came up with …"
The last sentence was not said by Oscar to ruin Feng Bujue's performance but by Fei Ran's order through the earpiece. It looked like … the director planned to cooperate with Brother Jue and make him lose the first round.
"Yes …" Feng Bujue said shamelessly. "It's Mr. Li Zongsheng's lyric."
"But … if you copy the whole lyric," Oscar said, "the audience might not buy it."
"It's fine," Feng Bujue replied calmly.
Hearing that, Oscar widened his eyes and made a helpless expression at the camera. He shrugged.
Then, he walked to the fourth contestant and said, "Okay … Now, let's see … what kind of content has Rose, who used five minutes and eleven seconds to write."
The atmosphere at the venue turned cold in that one minute. Many of the fans who came to support Feng Bujue were silent. They had no idea what was going on and did not know what to say.
On Oscar's side, he had started to reveal the other contestants' articles.
Other than Feng Bujue, the other contestants naturally wrote their own content on the spot.
The first was Rose. Her paragraph was undoubtedly very "gothic". It was full of despair, darkness, death, loneliness … and a strong sense of chuunibyou. However, to her surprise, her words actually combined well with the two themes of "love" and "time" and received a rather enthusiastic response.
Then, it was Amucha. Compared to the other contestants, his writing was not very good. However, he could at least write in a simple and easy to understand way. Moreover, his typing speed was very fast. He used the full pinyin input method on the field console, and he was able to type more than 500 words in six minutes. So … he wrote a short story of a few hundred words to fit the theme of the event. Unfortunately, the plot of his story was a bit too naive and idealistic. His writing style could not make up for these shortcomings. The whole paragraph did not have a good effect.
Then, it was Soda's article. He was a very good storyteller and his writing style was good. In terms of writing style, he was quite close to Feng Bujue. He also wrote a short story to express the themes of "love" and "time," but the number of words was not as long as Amucha's. However … with a more concise writing style, the response he received was much more enthusiastic than Amucha's.
As for the remaining three … Night Fire and the bandit general both submitted their articles in six minutes and forty seconds. Uncle Earth used the handwriting function on the console, which led to a lack of time. He was forced to write until the last second before he was forced to stop.
Oscar also read out their articles separately. The description of the bandit general was okay. It could be said that it followed the rules, but it was not lacking. Uncle Earth's … The ending was rushed, and it was obvious that he was not finished. However, he was the oldest and the most experienced contestant here. There was nothing to say about his writing style. The part that he wrote was enough to resonate with the audience.
And the one with the worst effect was probably Night Fire. From the first minute, he had been disturbed by Brother Jue's sudden manic behavior. Night Fire wanted to write a series of parallel sentences in the first person to stir up emotions, but he lost his emotions first. The more he wrote, the more anxious he became, and the more he wrote, the more mistakes he made. In the end, the paragraph that he wrote was incomprehensible. There was no real "emotion" or gorgeous "skill." Fortunately, his live fans worked very hard. After the article was published, they spent a lot of effort to cheer for him. Finally, it slightly improved the audience's impression of the passage.
"Okay, we have finished watching the performance of all seven contestants in this round of writing." Oscar visited every contestant and turned back to the center of the stage. "The tense moment … has come again."
The camera on the top of the studio did a wide sweep and aimed at the contestants.
Oscar continued, "Friends in the audience, the fate of the contestants is once again in your hands." He paused. "Today, we will cancel the rule of 'first ballot' and 'second ballot'. You will only have one first ballot, and you can only support … one contestant." His expression turned serious. "The voting time is two minutes. Please cast your most important vote carefully. Now … the voting begins!"
The next second, intense background music began to play. Xiao Wu carried the close-up camera and rushed forward to give each of the seven contestants a close-up.
"Friends who have just turned on the television, the website, or the radio, you are now watching I Am a Writer — Resurrection Night!" Oscar continued after a short silence.
This abrupt change was also the director's instruction. Obviously … there would be an advertisement and a pre-recorded long speech added here in the future.
"The first round of voting is still going on intensely. Who will be able to take the lead in the first round …" Oscar used his own questions and nonsense to stall for more than a minute.
"Time's up!" Finally, Oscar completed his mission perfectly and gave a long sigh. "Okay … Today, I will announce the winner from …" He turned to the big screen. "The seventh place …"
The cameras started to get busy. They aimed at the audience, the contestants, and the hosts from various angles.
"The winner … of … I Am a Writer — Resurrection Night, the first round … of … the seventh place … is …" Whenever it was this moment, Oscar would pause after each word and drag it out as long as he could.
The live DJ was very cooperative and added in a fast-paced sound effect.
"Bujue." When Oscar read out Brother Jue's pen name, his voice and intonation were rather low.
Immediately, there was a clamor from the audience, and there seemed to be some boos mixed in as well.
Oscar turned to face the camera and used his eyes to look at Brother Jue. "Bujue, do you have anything to say?"
Feng Bujue chuckled coldly. "I don't know. I didn't do well. I don't care how much I did."
"You're too arrogant …" Oscar complained in his heart. "After being exposed for plagiarism, you didn't show the slightest sign of remorse or shame. You actually shamelessly replied with such words … Wait … These are also lyrics!"
"Tsk —" At this moment, the Night Fire fans in the audience booed in undisguised unison. The audience and neutral parties who supported Brother Jue also maintained their silence.
"Haha … Bujue still has his personality." Oscar smiled stiffly and quickly continued, "Then … Next, I'm going to reveal …" In order to quickly divert the audience's attention, he did not delay for too long this time and announced, "The writer who won fourth place …"
His words successfully stunned the audience for a moment. This was because according to past practice, only the first, second, and seventh rankings would be announced in writing.
"Like I've said before, tonight … many rules will be changed." Oscar smiled mysteriously. "The rankings that I will announce today will be … third, fourth, and last place." He paused for a second. "And the four writers who are ranked one, two, six, and six … will be kept a secret for now …"
"Hmm … This looks like a way to increase the suspense …" Feng Bujue reacted quickly. Once he heard that, he said internally, "Actually, it is to make it easier for them to pull strings behind the scenes …"
"Today, the writer who won the first round, the fourth place will be …" Oscar continued. "… Our Uncle Earth, The Spring Breeze of Reform."
There was a round of applause from the audience.
Oscar also walked quickly to the No.4 seat and said with a smile, "Brother Earth, I really admire you … I've never seen anyone enter the top four with an unfinished essay in the 'Turn Writing into Chapters' competition."
"Haha … It is all thanks to the support of our friends in the audience." Uncle Earth pushed on his black-rimmed glasses and replied kindly.
"Hmm, Brother Earth's humility is admirable as well." Oscar smiled.
As he spoke, he turned to face the camera. "Okay … Next, let us announce the next contestant … who is ranked third in the first round …" He looked at the camera and put on an expression that said, 'Come and beat me up if I don't say it.' He stared at the camera for a full ten seconds before saying, "That is … Soda!"
Another round of cheers came from the audience … but overall, the number of people who cheered for Soda and Uncle Earth added together was less than the number of Night Fire's fans …
This was quite a helpless situation. Most of the fans of these two were above thirty, and most of them were male. Even though their votes were not bad in the online voting, they had the least number of supporters among the audience that day (This was also due to the organizers' manipulation).
"Speak of the devil." Oscar walked to Soda. "I was just talking about the contestant who did not finish the essay in the first round …"
"Haha …" Naturally, Soda knew that Oscar was talking about the incident from one of the earlier episodes. "I finished it today."
"Yes, as long as you finish it, you will have the ability to get into the top three," Oscar said.
"No, no, you flatter me." Soda waved his hand.
"I'm not flattering you." Oscar turned to face the audience and said, "Now … I can announce a set of data …" He returned to the stage. "In the past twenty episodes of I Am a Writer, Soda has participated in sixteen episodes …"
At this point, he purposely paused. The audience understood what he meant and responded with cheers and applause.
"And he holds a record that no one else has ever achieved, and that is …" Oscar waved his arm to point at Soda. "In the first round, as long as he can finish the essay, he will be in the top three."
The audience clapped again, but Oscar interrupted them. "Furthermore …" He said loudly, "In the second round, in the second round, in the Genius Essay, Soda is the writer who has won the 'first place' the most times."
Then, he finally finished. The audience also burst into the loudest cheers since the start of the match.
The other writers also sat in their seats and applauded one after another. Of course, some of them were sincere while others were just putting on a show …
"Okay, that's enough. Don't forget about the real business." Fei Ran's voice came through the earpiece again.
The moment Oscar heard this, he understood that the director was telling him to stop before he went overboard. After all … the real person he was supposed to praise was Night Fire.
Honestly … Oscar personally had his own likes and dislikes for these contestants. He might not have read many novels, but he had interacted with many people. Who was a gentleman, who was a villain, who was a real talent, who was a liar … He had a scale in his heart.
From a personal perspective, Oscar really wanted Soda to get into the finals. But due to the needs of the show … he had to compromise.
"Okay … Now that I've said that, I'm sure the audience can't wait any longer. Let's move on to the next round …" Oscar quickly said, "The Genius Essay!"
"Hmm … The most troublesome part is here …" Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes and mumbled, "The consequences of my bullsh * tting last time were quite serious … I need to come up with a countermeasure this time …"
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