With Su Ruowan out cold, Su Muyan carried her and took off while Su Botao the chief director told two staff members to call Su Muyan back.
Despite the program still on the air, Su Ruowan’s team was gone. Most viewers in front of the TV had no idea what happened and there was no way to stop the filming halfway.
The commercials were only three minutes long. Before the next team could hit the stage, the broadcasting director followed Su Botao’s instruction to release a compilation footage of the trainees’ progress thus far to buy more time.
Online, news of Su Ruowan’s plagiarism went viral and the netizens flipped out. Many of Su Ruowan’s die-hard fans who were unwilling to give in just yet, locked horns with the netizens.
In the backstage dressing room, everyone stared at Mr. Xixi, itching to find out whether he found the song Su Ruowan copied from. Fang Yao was particularly edgy since she mentored Su Ruowan from the very beginning. This was the last thing she wanted to happen.
“Mr. Xixi, you can stop looking.” Breaking the silence, He Sumo pulled off his earphones and played the music on loudspeaker. The familiar tune was identical to Su Ruowan’s song.
Nevertheless, it was only music without lyrics but the melody was exactly the same. Su Ruowan had the audacity to use the music without any alteration.
“This is it.” Shen Xi nodded and asked, “Which website is this?”
He Sumo told her the name of the platform before turning to the others. “The song is published in a foreign niche music platform called VF. It was published two months ago.”
Su Ruowan only produced the melody a month and a half ago. No doubt, this was a case of plagiarism.
This niche music platform was based in the native land of South Africa, so the general population were pretty much unconcerned. Even if a song was plagiarized from that platform, it was unclear the news would reach the creator despite the press making them easy prey to be plagiarized from.
It was impressive of Su Ruowan to have found quality music on an unknown website. They were baffled whether to call her lucky or cautious.
Resourceful netizens who were ahead of the game found the original melody before everyone, including the knowledgeable Mr. Xixi who had heard the tune before.
Su Ruowan’s fans finally shut up after netizens threw proof in their faces.
Fang Yao shook her head and sighed. “Was that really necessary of her to do so?”
What more could she say? She was blind not to see it. Fang Yao fell sick to the stomach being reminded of her admiration and fondness for Su Ruowan as well as the gentleness, sweetness, good behavior, and talent displayed by Su Ruowan. They were all fake. Su Ruowan’s acting was really convincing!
Xia Mi had no pity for Su Ruowan as she believed Su Ruowan knew the consequences of her actions. She sympathized with Fang Yao though. “People have to take responsibility for their actions. It’s not like you knew she copied someone else’s work.”
Gu Yang frowned upon the behavior of stealing others’ work and passing it as their own. He coldly scoffed. “Some people may be young, but they sure have a huge appetite. This is what greed does to people.”
One day, greed would come back and bite them in the *ss. Su Ruowan had fame, popularity, and talent. Things would not have come to this if she did not try to make herself to be perfect in every way in the music scene.
It did not take two minutes before Su Botao ran over to get them. The show must go on. It was not a Su Ruowan show anyway. There were still many popular trainees who were yet to perform.
With things moving too quickly and blowing out of proportion, Su Ruowan’s people were not able to put a stop to it fast enough. No one stood up for her, much less curbed the comments.
The trainees heard the commotion, but the crowd had dispersed by the time they got to it. They turned to their phone to get the latest news.
Thrilled, Song Wenye reported the update to Shen Xi the first chance she got. Mr. Xixi exposed Su Ruowan of plagiarism and the latter passed out in shame.
The other girls were taken aback by the development. It never occurred to them that Su Ruowan’s song was piracy. A resourceful netizen even traced Su Ruowan’s choreography back to two foreign and long-standing girl groups. Many of the dance moves were a replica with no adjustments done.
Still, the moves of the two girl groups only made up part of the choreography. However, the overwhelming evidence only validated Mr. Xixi’s statement that it was familiar and the moves were copied and pasted.
Everyone had nothing but admiration for Mr. Xixi’s bad*ss feat. He seemed to know it all, able to identify the truth behind Su Ruowan’s song and dance through the extensive observation of music and choreographies.
“Yangyang, it’s up to you now.” Han Yan slapped her thigh in glee and cheered Ye Weiyang on as the latter was about to hit the stage. “You can do it!”
Holy cow!
What dumb luck!
Han Yan and Yangyang were having the best luck this year. She managed to climb to eighth place because He Lu fell out of the competition. Of course, Han Yan could forget about the first place because it was bound to go to Yangyang.
“Yes, I can.” Ye Weiyang nodded, unaffected by Su Ruowan’s scandal.
The others gave her encouragement.
Song Wenye was grinning from ear to ear, no longer worried Yangyang would lose the crown. God must have answered her prayer and she was overjoyed Su Ruowan got the karma she deserved. Song Wenye turned to the rest. “What do you think would happen to Su Ruowan now?”
Han Yan was the first to raise her hand and answer. “Kicked out of the competition!”
She would quit the entertainment circle altogether if she were in Su Ruowan’s shoes. She would be too embarrassed to show her face anywhere!
Ji Jingyan and Liu Qianyu bobbed their heads in agreement.
Tong Kejun uttered, “I don’t think Su Ruowan is the kind to give up so easily.”
Guan Rou chimed in, “I have to agree with Tongtong.”
Song Wenye remarked, “You guys are right. Su Ruowan doesn’t know when to call it quits. She’s going to play the victim. I have to discuss with Alpha Xu to see how we should deal with her.”
During the incident at school where she was posting with multiple accounts, Su Ruowan managed to pull herself out of the drama by sadfishing. They were not going to let her get away with it so easily this time.
Song Wenye sought ideas to kill off Su Ruowan so the latter would go down for the count.
Su Ruowan was wide awake in a breakroom and aware that there were people around her. With Su Muyan back to shooting the show, the staff members and doctors stayed by her side.
She really did not want anyone to see her like this, nor did she want to see the disgusted look on their faces. Su Ruowan had to keep up with playing dead.
There was a sudden knock on the door.
