Zhou Yun Sheng bid Ivana farewell, then hid under his quilt and made a gagging expression. Whether it was him or Romeo, they weren’t the slightest bit interested in Hayden that arrogant slag. He put up that farce to one, fulfill Romeo’s wish to live under the sun by coming out of the closet; second, to wash his reputation clean and let Romeo get enough viewer votes; three, to knock Hayden off his high horse.
Hayden bribed one of the hosts to shave Romeo’s hair, causing him to leave the show, this debt needed to be re-paid.
Hayden’s fan group was huge, but because he’s a new celebrity, his fans’ loyalty hasn’t had the time to settle, they may switch camps at any time. When they find that Romeo’s bad character was to cover up his grief, they would certainly identify with him and feel compassion. The sharp decline in net votes should stop at that time.
Starting from the next game, Zhou Yun Sheng will stay far away from Hayden, but Hayden will certainly start actively harassing him. So, their circumstances will be reversed. The audience will always sympathize with the underdog, especially someone in a desperate one-sided love. Their brains will easily fill in the gap from personal experience or from consuming hundreds of thousands of stories with heart-breaking love-affairs. This will make them effortlessly sympathize with Romeo’s pain and feel disgusted with Hayden.
Romeo’s pure appearance and clean temperament was his most powerful weapon.
When a rough old man painted with heavy make-up and effeminate behaviors comes out of the closet, no matter how pitiful his performance, the audience would more or less feel psychological discomfort at the appearance gap, although most of them actually don’t have any resentment with homosexuality.
But when an innocent and pure looking child shows confusion, pain and helplessness at his sexuality, looking at his delicate androgynous face and seeing his awkward but extremely cute personality, even the coldest person wouldn’t have the heart to condemn him. Of course, some people have terminal homophobe cancer, but their values and outlook on life was their own hang-up.
Zhou Yun Sheng anticipates that Romeo’s situation will greatly improve after this episode broadcasts.
The next day, all the players were called to the studio for judging. The host, Ariel, welcomed everyone and introduced the prizes for this session, causing everyone to marvel.
“We forgot to inform you that this session’s best photo will be made into a poster ad for MOT mobile phones and placed in their stores. So, all of MOT’s loyal users could be seeing your face, isn’t that exciting?” Ariel raised her hand and loudly asked.
“Whoo hoo!”
How could you not be excited? This world’s most advanced yet stylish smart phones came from MOT stores, every day, easily tens of thousands of people lined up to buy from them, whoever wins this episode will become famous.
All the players had ambitious eyes.
After last night’s inner monologue, the crew treated Romeo with special fondness, they skipped over the crowd to give him a close-up. He had big, wide open, sea blue eyes, and his expression was very dazed. This child obviously gets lost easily, he’s really too fragile, they wanted to give him an encouraging hug.
Ariel called the players one by one to the stage, commenting on their best photo. In the three judges, Ariel was a supermodel, Jeffrey was one of the world’s best runway coaches, and Eureka was a public relations expert and a founder of a fashion brand. In the fashion circle, they were well-known figures. Their comments were very professional, but also very poisonous, they didn’t give players praise they didn’t deserve.
This was what the program team wanted. This was a fight to see who won the victory title of ‘The Next Supermodel’, these contestants weren’t on vacation.
When Romeo was called, Ariel clicked the remote to bring up his best photo on the screen. Jeffrey and Eureka’s face subtlety changed. Obviously, this photo was not the one the three of them had picked together.
Ariel changed the photo by herself, what does she want to do?
They quickly scanned the big screen and found that the photo was slightly flawed and finally understood Ariel’s intention. She wanted to knock out Romeo, and if she couldn’t eliminate him, she would make sure he didn’t win TOP1. Yes, she was now the leading model in Valentine Brown’s (Hayden’s father) spring fashion show, so she naturally took good care of Hayden.
This is cheating! The two other hosts were extremely resentful, but for the reputation of the program, they couldn’t make a scene, so they had to hold back.
Jeffrey commented before Ariel could open her mouth, “I love, LOVE this photo! The whole space extends to infinity with you as the center. It’s reality yet somehow unreal. My Dear, I can hardly imagine how you did it. To be able to pose so elegantly in the air, how beautiful.”
On the screen, the young man’s right hand was holding the phone and his left hand was folded on his jaw, sitting on an invisible, gorgeous sofa. His chin was slightly uplift, looking a little arrogant. A wisp of curly platinum blond hair jumped into his eyes and irritated him, so he couldn’t help but lower his eyelids. The subtle chagrin overflowed from his eyes, and he could no longer maintain his noble appearance, he looked a little playfully helpless. He was like a kitten, one moment he was squatting reservedly on the sofa, but in the next moment, he could jump to the carpet and chase his own tail.
He was full of contradictory temperament and inexplicable attraction.
The more Jeffrey looked at the photo, the more he liked it, he even found it more engaging that the one they’d originally picked out, so he reiterated a ‘I give it full marks’.
Eureka could also sense the charm of the photo. She wrote a ’10’ in the air with a ballpoint pen, leaned forward and looked into the teenager’s eyes. “Excellent! It’s my favorite photo so far, seriously! I can see the breeze passing through your hair, I can see the stars reflecting in your eyes, I can see the gorgeous palace you created. Only the noblest phone can match the noblest young man, it’s very stylish, no contest!”
Ariel’s smile stiffened. The two other judges gave such a high rating, it would seem strange and tasteless if she belittled him.
She rapidly thought for a few seconds, then she also gave the photo a well reception, but criticized the off lighting, giving it eight points.
The screen showed the photo’s net score, it was not high, but compared to the previous episode, it was a big step forward. Although this episode had not yet aired, the audience had the opportunity to vote on all the player’s final shots without context online. They haven’t seen Romeo’s confession, so they still had their bad impressions of him, yet they gave him a good score just by virtue of how touching his magical realism style photo was.
In the final analysis, the fashion circle really was a world where you could sell your looks.
Ariel immediately followed with Emily and Hayden, she first teased them about their relationship, then she gave their photos praise, ensuring the two’s success.
Jeffrey and Eureka were very fair people, the two’s performance was indeed very good, they gave nine points and eight points, then nine points and seven points.
The two’s net scores plus their challenge scores were higher than Romeo’s. After comparing the statistics, the crown fell on Emily’s head and Romeo ranked second. This meant that her poster would be put up in MOT’s stores.
The players hugged her one by one, blessing her, while Romeo and Ivana stood in the corner. The cameraman followed them and found that the two’s expression was very calm.
Back at the villa, Hayden held a rave party for his girlfriend. Ivana drove out her roommate and made Romeo come in. The two people went to bed after bathing and drying their hair. Whenever there was no challenge, they had intense modeling training. They needed to become qualified models before the end of the program, no brokerage firm was willing to sign a clueless rookie.
On the second day of training, the two were full of energy, while the others were sluggish, causing Miss Jeffrey to criticize them.
Meanwhile, during the prime time of the day, the program finally aired. The players couldn’t use their phones and couldn’t access the internet. They were cut off from the outside world for the entire season, so they didn’t know the audience’s exact perception and evaluation of them. But of course, this doesn’t include Zhou Yun Sheng.
He soaked in the bath and opened the AI to “The Next Supermodel” official website.
“Oh. My. God. Romeo don’t cry! My heart will break! I really want to reach into the TV and give him a hug. He cares so much for Hayden, but only gets misunderstanding and hatred. Hayden is a true bastard!” This was from the motherly part of the audience.
“So cute, how could the world have such a lovely person! If I can have Romeo as my awkward, cute and cherished lover, I wouldn’t drop him for 1 million dollars!” This was a video sent in by a handsome man, a flamboyant gay man and Romeo’s new fanboy.
“Romeo is a child, he is too fragile and sensitive for this program, like a small lamb thrown to the wolves. All the players were staring at him with malicious and threatening eyes, waiting to slaughter him, so he reacted with defensive claws. Oh my God, I’m so heartbroken for him. I got so worried when he curled up in the chair, and when he revealed how scared he was, I cried. I want him to leave that depressing environment, but I also feel that he needs to get to the end. I really don’t know what I should do.” This was from the perceptive part of audience.
“Did you guys notice? The eight points Ariel gave him was completely unreasonable! In my opinion, his photo was utterly above Emily and Hayden’s, it was this session’s best! Period!” This was from the livid audience members.
The discussion boards vibrated like a large echo chamber.
Then someone reminded them, “Did you guys forget? This photo didn’t lose because of Ariel’s eight points, it only knocked down Romeo’s challenge score. But his net score was too low to make up for it, causing him to get second place. I thought that his photo was the best, but when I thought of Romeo’s attitude, I didn’t vote for him. God, I’m such a big fool!”
Tens of thousands of fools lined up to reflect.
The boy was so pure, clean, and fragile. Seeing him crying with his red eyes and nose and puffy hair, he was so pitiful and lovely, except for wanting to give him a warm hug, who would dare criticize him?
Romeo’s net viewer votes quickly surpassed Hayden and Emily, and went straight into first place. He also became A Country’s rotten women’s favorite fan art subject. Ivana also shot up to fourth place after comforting the young man and boldly coming out of the closet.
This was a relatively open country, having the courage to come out and face yourself earned you a lot of tolerance.
================================================================
T/N:
Slag- someone who sleeps around. Could also be calling him physical trash.
Rotten – Us. Fujoshis. People who like BxB
