The total length of the interview that Manju Entertainment Company and Penguin Music created for Qi Cong was one hour. Excluding the time for playing the music video and vlog, the time for the actual interview was about 40 minutes.

The interview was divided into three parts. The first part was Qi Cong’s self introduction and personal experience interview. The second part was the promotion of “A New Life” and the third was Qi Cong’s talent show and interaction with the audience.

Among these three parts, Manju Entertainment required that the first and third parts must account for more than 70% of the time. They hoped that through these two segments, the hosts would showcase Qi Cong strengths, so that the audience could get to know the real Qi Cong from various angles and wash away all the negative impressions of Qi Cong in the public’s mind due to the melon eating chaos from the past.

In order to achieve this, Penguin Music’s entire interview team prepared five scenarios for today’s interview, and drew more than 20 “in case Qi Cong says something wrong or has a particularly difficult personality” rescue scenarios. They also prepared an “in case the live stream doesn’t get enough traffic” scenario which included raffles and gifts for more active viewers to attract attention from other platforms.

Because of the special nature of Qi Cong’s personal experiences, they even dispatched a professional control team to the broadcast room to keep an eye on the scene. They were afraid that when Qi Cong appeared there would be some comments related to Yanhuang, Jiang Zhaoyan, mental illness, and so on, which would affect the mood of the viewers and the atmosphere of the studio.

Yet today the corporate music team found that most of their preparations were superfluous.

At the beginning of the live broadcast, there were indeed some bad comments on the live screen, and the popularity of the stream wasn’t very good, but in the middle of the MV broadcast of “A New Life,” most of the bad remarks disappeared by themselves. By the time the MV was finished and the vlog behind it began to play, the bad remarks had already disappeared by 99%. The  remaining 1% was shamed by the rest of the audience.

The whitewashing task, which they expected to take the whole interview to complete, was actually completed after the MV and blog was played, without need for them to worry at all.

There was also the issue with stream popularity. From the beginning of the MV stream, it’s popularity had been steadily increasing, and in the last few minutes of the vlog it began to soar. Then with the appearance of Qi Cong, it broke through the ten million mark, rising to the first place of the Penguin Music live list.

They were just a music platform, so unless there was some big name present, their numbers only hovered at the one million level. Qi Cong’s current popularity, however, almost caught up with the last time Shen Jia was here.

There was also the problem of Qi Cong’s lack of experience and difficult personality, which their chief planner was the most worried about before.

The staff looked at the end of the self-introduction as the host naturally started conversation. Qi Cong was neither too talkative nor too dull, not too passive nor too expressive. Although he didn’t smile all the time, his aura made people feel relaxed and comfortable.

To be honest, this was the first time they have seen such a measured newcomer in an interview. What was even more rare was Qi Cong’s control of proportion. From his appearance to good education to good temperament, it all gave a very natural feel. It made people feel comfortable and proper without any will to disobey it.

They couldn’t help but sigh in their hearts many times today. This Qi Cong was really a very good person.

In the corner of the interview hall, the chief planner of Penguin Music couldn’t help leaning over to Zhao Zhenxun and said in a low voice, “As he is a new artist signed under you, please give a bit of a statement.”

Zhao Zhenxun and the other party were very familiar with each other. After a quick glance at him, Zhao Zhenxun redirected his eyes back to Qi Cong who was following the host’s guidance to bring the topic to the past, and replied, “He is a good kid. Don’t believe the mess outside.”

The chief planner understood and also looked at Qi Cong. Just a few seconds later he looked at the side screen where Qi Cong and host were talking that unknowingly became full of comments such as: “Woo woo woo”, “Qi Cong cheer up”, “Jiang Zhaoyan damn you!” 

Then they became, “Mm-hmm, it’s all in the past, let’s move on”, “Is there such a custom in Haicheng?”, “Hahahaha, laughing to death, Qi Cong is saying a cold joke?” 

He couldn’t help but ask Zhao Zhenxun again. “Is Qi Cong likely to appease the emotions of the live audience?”

Others may not be able to see it, but he has been in this business for a long time. After paying little attention he could see that from the beginning of his appearance, Qi Cong was intentionally or unintentionally using words and physical expressions to pacify the audience, politely telling them that he was fine, back to normal and healthy. It was as if he was trying to pull the audience’s emotions out of the previous vlog and MV and into the interview itself.

Qi Cong seemed to be a person who was trying to soothe and pull the audience’s emotions in a way that allows them to get to know and understand him in a more peaceful emotional state and in a way that is as comfortable and burden-free as possible.

Zhao Zhenxun also noticed Qi Cong’s approach and frowned suspiciously as he replied, “He is the kind of person who doesn’t want to burden those around him.”

But it was indeed a bit strange for such a person to not reply to Gu Xun.

The current Qi Cong was trying too hard. He seems to be trying to keep every viewer who enters the live stream as much as possible.

That wasn’t right.

Qi Cong  worked hard before, but his efforts at that time were steady and contained. However, now Qi Cong’s efforts began to reveal a hint of urgency; he clearly wanted more people to see him and pay attention to him and get to know him.

Although this urgency was very subtle and not too annoying, it was also very beneficial to Qi Cong’s development as an artist, but considering his recent physical state, the timing of this urgency and signals it represented really made people worry.

Zhao Zhenxun thought about it and took out his phone to send a message to Gu Xun.

The popularity of the live room has been steadily increasing, as the conversation between Qi Cong and host deepened. The atmosphere in the comment section also became more and more harmonious and lively.

At the same time, on Weibo, topics such as #Qi Cong live#, # Qi Cong song# and #Qi Cong vlog#  also appeared one after another, and their rankings also gradually rose.

The public was getting to know the real Qi Cong.

Edited by: Antiope1

Support translation: