"Hey... these are lyrics..." Oscar's heart was stampeding with countless mythical beasts, but on the surface, he had to endure it, unable to say those words. "And not a single word has been changed... You're completely copying it! Even if it's an old song, many people have heard it before... Even if not many people have heard it, after the show airs, people can search it online and find out..."

"What's wrong?" Feng Bujue looked at Oscar and asked nonchalantly.

"Uh... Bujue..." Oscar replied, "Are you sure... you want to submit this content?" Because the audience hadn't seen what Feng Bujue had written yet, Oscar felt there was still room for redemption. He winked at Jue-ge vigorously, and said in a strange tone, "What you've written... it looks a bit familiar to me..." He glanced at the camera, "There's still plenty of time... do you want to revise it?"

The implication of his words was that he already knew that this passage wasn't his original work, and he should quickly revise it while he still had time.

Unexpectedly, Feng Bujue didn't appreciate it at all.

"Of course it's familiar," Jue-ge replied casually, "These are lyrics."

"He actually admitted it! He said it in front of the camera!" Oscar roared in his heart, "Is that really okay?" He quickly turned his head to cast a look of help at the director, waiting for further instructions.

"Keep recording, it's fine," Fei Ran said in the communication channel, "The rules didn't say it's not allowed."

"Ah ha ha... Bujue, you're really honest." Oscar had no choice but to try to say something nice.

Unfortunately... Jue-ge still didn't appreciate it.

"I'm just too lazy to think for myself," Feng Bujue replied immediately, "So I just copied a passage that fits the theme quite well."

As soon as he said this, even the audience didn't know how to react...

"What the hell is this kid planning to do?" Oscar thought to himself, "You're not only digging your own grave, but you're also a bit shameless..."

At this moment, Oscar had already turned his face to a place where the camera couldn't capture it. As a person with a strong sense of camera presence, he did this intentionally, because he didn't want his current expression to appear in the shot.

"Anyway, the rules allow it, right?" Feng Bujue continued at this time, still placing his hands behind his head, posing in a rather arrogant manner. "I think this is no different from quoting classics, isn't it?"

"The difference is huge, okay..." Oscar replied in his heart, "Quoting classics is to explain a principle, but you're copying the whole passage, not a single word of your own..."

"Um... hehe..." Oscar laughed awkwardly, "Okay... we'll reveal the results later." He could only quickly gloss over this matter.

The cameraman, Xiao Wu, was also quite quick-witted. Seeing this situation, he took the opportunity to turn the camera towards the other writers.

Oscar also improvised, moving slightly away from seat number six and saying loudly, "Time... is passing by every minute and every second. Except for Bujue, our other six writers have not stopped creating. Perhaps we can see a few clues from the expressions on their faces..." He cooperated with Xiao Wu's filming and spoke these words, successfully diverting the audience's attention.

…………

Seven minutes passed quickly, and writers successively clicked the submit button on the screen.

During this time, Oscar kept talking about things that seemed to be related to the show but were actually meaningless nonsense. Even so... his periods of silence would not exceed ten seconds... that's professionalism.

"There's not much time left... let's count down the last ten seconds..." When only a dozen seconds remained on the big screen, Oscar opened his mouth in a timely manner, "Ten... nine... eight... seven... six..." He finished counting ten numbers towards the screen, and added, "...Time's up!"

A piece of background music commonly used in programs, about five seconds long, sounded, and the lights on the stage also flickered for a while.

Cameraman Xiao Wu adjusted his position, preparing to follow the host's actions.

"Alright... the moment of unveiling has arrived." Oscar said while listening to the relevant information coming from the headphones, "Careful viewers must already know the order in which we will announce the articles." He paused, "I won't keep you in suspense... we'll start with the first contestant to submit their article..." He turned around, "...contestant Bujue." After saying that, he led the camera to Jue-ge.

At the same time, the passage that Feng Bujue wrote also appeared on the big screen.

The audience in the venue were all talking about it, but applause never sounded...

Oscar read the entire passage of lyrics, and then said, "Um... well written indeed." He looked at Jue-ge, "It also fits the two keywords 'love' and 'time' quite well." He changed the subject, and said with a smile, "Unfortunately... this doesn't seem to be what you came up with..."

The words that followed weren't said because Oscar intentionally wanted to expose Feng Bujue, but because Fei Ran ordered him to say them through the headphones. It seemed... the director was preparing to cooperate with Jue-ge and let him establish his defeat in the first round.

"Yes..." Feng Bujue said with the face of someone who didn't care, "Lyrics by teacher Li Zongsheng."

"But... if you copy the entire passage like this..." Oscar said, "The audience may not buy it."

"It doesn't matter." Feng Bujue replied calmly.

Hearing this, Oscar widened his eyes, made a helpless expression to the camera, and shrugged his shoulders.

Then, he went to contestant number four's seat and said, "Alright... next, let's take a look at... what Rose, who took five minutes and eleven seconds, wrote."

The atmosphere in the venue had become very cold in the past minute or so. Many fans who came to support Feng Bujue were already silent. They didn't know what was going on, and they didn't know what to say at this moment...

And Oscar had already begun to reveal the articles of the other writers in a step-by-step manner...

Except for Feng Bujue, the other contestants naturally created original content on the spot.

First was Rose. The passage she wrote was undoubtedly very "gothic", full of despair, darkness, death, loneliness... and a strong sense of chuunibyou. But unexpectedly, this passage of hers actually combined well with the two themes of "love" and "time", and received quite a warm response.

Then there was Yamucha. Compared to the other writers present, his writing was not well-regarded. But at least he could write in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. Moreover, his typing speed was very fast. Using the full pinyin input method on the on-site console, he could actually type more than 500 words in six minutes. So... he simply wrote a short story of several hundred words to fit the theme of this round. Unfortunately, the plot of his story was a bit too naive and idealistic, and his writing style failed to fill in these shortcomings. The overall effect wasn't very good when read aloud.

Next up was Soda's article. He was a very good storyteller, and his writing style was also good. In terms of writer type, he and Feng Bujue were quite similar. He also wrote a short story to express the themes of "love" and "time", but the number of words wasn't as many as Yamucha's. But... relying on a more concise writing style, the response he elicited was much warmer than Yamucha's.

As for the remaining three people... Nightflame and General Fei both clicked the submit button at six minutes and forty-odd seconds; while Uncle Dadi used the handwriting function on the console, which led to insufficient time. He was forced to stop writing until the very last second of the countdown.

Oscar also read out their articles respectively... General Fei's description was okay, and could be said to be mediocre but not bad; Uncle Dadi's passage... had a rushed ending, and was obviously not finished, but after all, he was the oldest and most experienced person here, and his writing was also impeccable. Based on the part he wrote, it was enough to elicit resonance from the audience.

And the most terrible effect was probably Nightflame's... From the first minute, he was unsettled by Jue-ge's sudden erratic behavior. Nightflame originally wanted to write a series of first-person parallel sentences to stir up emotions, but he lost his own emotions first... The more he wrote, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he became, the more mistakes he made... The final passage he wrote was incomprehensible; he couldn't see any real "emotion", nor could he see any gorgeous "technique". Fortunately, his on-site fans worked very hard. After the article was announced... they put in a lot of effort to cheer for him, and finally slightly improved other people's impression of this passage...

"Alright, we've seen the performances of all seven writers in this round of 'Writing in a Rush'..." After visiting each contestant, Oscar turned around and returned to the center of the stage, "The tense moment... has arrived again..."

A camera above the recording studio made a wide-ranging movement, sweeping across the contestant seats.

Oscar continued, "Seven hundred audience members present, the fate of the contestants is once again in your hands..." He paused, "Today, we will cancel the rules of 'first choice vote' and 'second choice vote'... In your hands, there will only be one first choice vote, you can only support... one writer." He straightened his expression, "The voting time is two minutes, please cast your crucial vote carefully... Now... voting begins!"

The next second, tense and intense background music sounded in the venue. Xiao Wu carried the close-up camera and rushed up to give each of the seven writers a close-up.

"Friends who have just turned on the TV, website, or radio, you are now watching *I Am A Writer - Night of Resurrection!*" Oscar directly followed up with this sentence after a short silence.

This abrupt transition was also the director's instruction. Obviously... a commercial and pre-recorded long-form spiel will be added here later.

"The first round of voting is still in progress. Who will be able to take the lead in the first round and gain a lead..." Oscar used self-questioning and self-answering and nonsense to delay for more than a minute.

"Time's up!" Finally, Oscar once again excellently completed his task, and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Okay... today, I will start announcing from..." He looked at the big screen, "...seventh place..."

All the camera positions in the venue became busy, aiming at the audience seats, contestant seats, and host from various angles...

"The writer who obtained... *I Am A Writer - Night of Resurrection*, the seventh place in the first round... is..." At this moment, Oscar always spoke word by word, stretching out as long as he could.

The on-site DJ also cooperated very well, taking the opportunity to insert a piece of fast-paced sound effects.

"Bujue." Oscar's voice and tone were a bit low when he read out Jue-ge's pen name.

A commotion immediately came from the audience seats, which seemed to be mixed with some boos.

Oscar turned to the side, faced the camera lens, and looked at Jue-ge with his eyes, "Bujue, do you have anything you want to say?"

Feng Bujue sneered: "I don't know, I didn't do well, I don't care, how much I did."

"This guy is too arrogant..." Oscar complained in his heart, "After being exposed for plagiarism, he doesn't have any sense of remorse and shame, and he shamelessly replied with such words... Wait... these few sentences are also lyrics!"

"Boo—" At this moment, in the audience, Nightflame's fans had already issued undisguised, uniform boos. And the audience who supported Jue-ge and the neutrals were all silent.

"Hehe... Bujue is still so individual." Oscar smiled with a stiff expression, and quickly followed up, "Then... next, what I'm going to reveal is..." In order to quickly divert the audience's attention, he didn't delay too long this time, and announced, "The writer who obtained fourth place..."

These words successfully stunned the audience for a moment. Because according to past practice, only the first, second, and seventh places were announced in "Writing in a Rush".

"As I have repeatedly emphasized, tonight... many past rules will be changed." Oscar smiled mysteriously, "The rankings I will announce today will be... third place, fourth place... and the last place." He paused for a second, "And the four writers ranked first, second, fifth, and sixth... are temporarily kept secret..."

"Um... this seems to be a way to strengthen the suspense..." Feng Bujue's reaction was so quick that he thought to himself as soon as he heard this, "Actually, it's to make it easier to operate in secret..."

"Today, the writer who obtained the first round, fourth place is..." Oscar's words continued, "...the reform spring breeze blows across the land... our Uncle Dadi." (reference to a famous Chinese propaganda song)

A round of applause sounded in the audience.

Oscar also quickly came to contestant number four's seat, with a smile on his face, and said, "Brother Dadi, I really admire you... I've never seen anyone enter the top four with an unfinished article in 'Writing in a Rush' before."

"Hehe... it's all thanks to the support of the audience." Uncle Dadi adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and replied very kindly.

"Um, Brother Dadi's modesty is also admirable." Oscar said with a smile.

While speaking, he turned around and faced the camera again, "Alright... next, let's reveal the next one... the contestant ranked third in the first round..." He looked at the camera, made an expression of "I just won't say it, come and hit me", stared for a full ten seconds, before continuing, "...is... Soda!"

A wave of cheers came from the audience again... However, overall, the people cheering for Soda and Uncle Dadi combined were still fewer than Nightflame's fans...

This was also a very helpless situation. Most of the fans of these two were over thirty years old and mostly male. Although their number of votes in the online voting was not bad, the number of people who came to support them among the audience today was the smallest (also due to the artificial manipulation of the organizers).

"Speaking of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives." Oscar went to Soda's place, "I just mentioned the contestant who couldn't finish the article in 'Writing in a Rush'..."

"Haha..." Soda naturally understood what the other party was talking about in the previous issue, "I finished it today."

"Yes, as long as you finish it, you have the strength to steadily enter the top three." Oscar said.

"No, no, you're overpraising me." Soda waved his hand.

"I'm not flattering you." Oscar turned to face the audience again, and said, "Now... I can announce a set of data..." He returned to the stage, "In the past twenty issues of *I Am A Writer*, Soda has participated in sixteen issues..."

Speaking to this point, he paused intentionally, and the audience understood his meaning very well and responded with a round of cheers and applause.

"And he holds a record that no one has achieved, that is..." Oscar waved his arm and pointed at Soda, "In the 'Writing in a Rush' segment, as long as he can finish writing, he can enter the top three."

Applause rose again from the audience, but Oscar interrupted them: "Moreover..." he said loudly, "...moreover, in the second round, the 'Touch of Genius' segment, Soda is also the writer who has obtained the most 'First Place' titles so far."

At this time, he finished speaking. And the audience in the venue erupted in the most imposing cheer since the opening.

The other writers all sat in their seats and applauded. Of course, some of them were sincere, and some were just pretending...

"Alright, let's get to the point, don't forget the main thing." Fei Ran's voice came from the headphones again.

As soon as Oscar heard it, he understood that the director was telling him to stop there and not to over-praise him. After all... the person who really needed to be promoted in this game was Nightflame.

To be honest... Oscar also had his own preferences for these contestants. He may not have read many novels, but he had come into contact with countless people. Who was a gentleman, who was a villain, who had real talent, who was deceiving the world... he had his own scale in his heart.

From a personal point of view, Oscar really hoped that Soda would enter the finals. But due to the needs of the program team... he had to compromise.

"Okay... now that I've said this, I believe the audience can't wait any longer, let's immediately enter the next round..." Oscar quickly followed up, "Touch of Genius!"

"Um... the most troublesome segment is coming..." Feng Bujue squinted his eyes and muttered silently, "The consequences of talking nonsense last time were quite serious... this time I have to come up with a countermeasure..."