Chapter Seventy-six X-MAN (Three)

  The butt-bumping contest continues, and since Zhang Chengyuan was eliminated earlier for saving Li Zhen, the team lost a key player. The remaining players were no match for Jiang Huidong, who had been inspired by Zhang's fighting spirit, and they fell one by one. In the end, Jiang Huidong's team won the right to ride horses first. After their victory, Jiang Huidong gloated in front of Jin Jiedong, boasting that his strategy of "using Li Zhen to defeat Zhang Chengyuan" was brilliant, making Jin even more depressed.

  After a short rest, they immediately started recording the horseback riding game segment. The four men of Kim Je-dong's team, with the oldest and most experienced member, Kim Chang-hoon as the horse head, Jang Seong-won as the first horse, Kim Jong-guk as the second horse, and Kim Je-dong as the horse tail.

  Kim Chang-hoon, born in 1968, is a singer who debuted in 1991 and is known for his charitable work in Korea. He has donated more than half of his concert earnings to charity over the years, earning him a good reputation among the Korean public. Despite his kind nature, he has a somewhat eccentric and impatient personality, speaks bluntly, and can be difficult to get close to. He also has some fear of marriage, which is why he remains single. Additionally, he is seen by Japanese media as an artist with strong anti-Japanese sentiments.

  For someone like that, Korean entertainers, regardless of whether they agree with him or not, and no matter what they say or think in private, at least on the surface, they all show great respect and lavish praise. After interacting with him for a while, Zhang Chengyuan felt that he was a man who adhered to his own moral principles, and such people were more worthy of his respect than some hypocritical or two-faced individuals. Therefore, when Kim Chang-won actively asked for his contact information after the show, Zhang Chengyuan exchanged private phone numbers with him without hesitation.

  There's also Kim Jong-kook, the current hottest figure in the song world. Jang Sung-won has a very good impression of him too. Although he has a strong and muscular body, his personality is a bit shy. He is humble to his seniors and takes care of his juniors, not just on the surface but from the heart. That's why he has made many friends like Kang Taehyun, Yoo Jaesuk, and Jang Sung-won's good friend Yun Eun-hye all get along well with him. Today, he also took care of Jang Sung-won a lot, worried that Jang Sung-won would feel awkward participating in X-Man for the first time, so he came over to chat with him first.

  The highly anticipated horseback riding game has begun, but unfortunately, it ended without any suspense, leaving Kim Ji-seok's team feeling frustrated. In the best-of-three match, Kim's team lost three consecutive games and didn't even get a chance to ride, suffering a crushing defeat. The first loss was due to Kim Ji-seok's slender physique being unable to withstand Jang Tae-eun's massive body weight, almost instantly getting crushed; the other two losses were because Kim Chang-won consecutively lost twice in the "rock-paper-scissors" mini-game against newcomer singer Lee Seung-gi.

  It has to be said that Li Seung Gi, the new singer who debuted in June this year, is really clever and witty. In the game, he twice shook Kim Chang Hoon's determination with his words, thus easily winning the victory. This also made Kim Chang Hoon feel both ashamed and indignant. He was ashamed because he caused the whole team to lose the match, and he was indignant because he was deceived by a young man despite being older. He blamed himself for being fooled by Li Seung Gi's usual gentle and humble appearance. After the game ended, Kim Chang Hoon immediately found Li Seung Gi in a fit of rage and scolded him severely for his cunning and rudeness.

  Of course, this move is just a superficial article he made for the sake of the show's effect. In fact, his heart should be secretly happy and applauding Li Shengji's excellent performance today.

  Through this drama, Zhang Chengyuan also deeply remembered the sunny and warm-faced, clever-minded, and slightly mischievous big boy Lee Sung-ki.

  Next is the "Of Course" game segment. Before starting, Liu Zhiwei emphasized a little girl named "Li Zhihuan", calling her the "Of Course Queen". This piqued Zhang Chengyuan's interest, as he only knew of Dance King, Dance Queen, Heavenly King and Heavenly Queen, but not what this "Of Course Queen" was about.

  Zhang Chengyuan took a closer look, but saw that the little girl was small and delicate, with a beautiful face and a gentle temperament. Her movements were still slightly shy, and she was wearing a special sports suit for the show, looking like a 17 or 18-year-old high school student. It wasn't until after the recording of the show that he found out that this little girl was actually his age, but just had a youthful appearance.

  Zhang Chengyuan saw that the empress was just a weak little girl, and couldn't help but wonder how she became the empress. Was it because the program planning team deliberately "promoted" her?

  The game started, and on Zhang Chengyuan's side, the first to appear was Jin Zhongguo. The opponent who appeared was Li Shengji. However, after just two rounds, Jin Zhongguo was KO'd by Li Shengji's sentence "Is your voice like the mosquito sound in the rest room?" Jin Zhongguo's voice is soft and delicate, extremely rare among men. Although he sings love songs with a more sentimental tone, he is actually not very satisfied with his own voice. No wonder he doesn't want to admit that his voice sounds like a mosquito. Of course, if he insisted on continuing, it wouldn't be impossible, but the program's effect has already been achieved, so why bother being stubborn? After all, he was never one to be overly competitive.

  Then Jin Changxun took the stage and was quickly defeated by Li Shengji. He only lasted one more round than Kim Jong-kuk, thanks to Liu Zaishi and Kim Jedong insisting that he continue fighting Li Shengji; otherwise, he would have surrendered in the first round. It must be said that Li Shengji's observational skills and eloquence are excellent, always striking at his opponents' weaknesses.

  The game continued, perhaps because Li Shengji was too dominant and the game would lose its competitiveness if he stayed. He was asked to "rest", which meant that in this round, he could only be a spectator. This also involved the distribution of screen time for other guests. As a newcomer, Li Shengji was disappointed but wouldn't complain, his performance today had already been impressive enough.

  Then, it was the turn of Lee Ji-hyun, the queen of this game, to perform. At this time, Jang Sung-won, who had been waiting for a long time, finally saw her "poisonous tongue" style. Comedian Shin Jung-hwan, who has a strange face and hairstyle, was described by her as a chicken. Fat and strong Kang Tae-oh was said to be fighting with pigs for food. Yoon Young-jun, who played the male lead in the popular drama "Lovers in Paris", was said to be dating flies (the word "Paris" is homophonic with "fly" in Korean). Her aggressive language was both venomous and humorous, creating a lot of laughter. No wonder she gained immense popularity from this game segment and became an almost regular guest on the show.

  However, while gaining something, she also lost a lot. She not only lost her original fresh and lovely image but also the good impression of many artists towards her. Many artists who were verbally attacked by her in the show may have laughed it off during recording, but they must have felt uncomfortable deep down and kept their distance from her. Some people who didn't know the truth or had only heard about her sharp tongue thought that her heart was as venomous as her words, and even some of her blindly loyal fans began to think so after hearing rumors. As a result, her reputation didn't improve over time.

  In Zhang Chengyuan's opinion, perhaps Li Zhixian did not originally intend to show this side of herself, but after she occasionally showed her linguistic talent in the program a few times, the "X-MAN" program team or her brokerage firm required her to maintain this poisonous tongue image for the sake of the program's effect, so as to attract the attention of the masses.

  Thinking of this, Zhang Chengyuan couldn't help but worry about her, worrying that she would have to bear all kinds of gossip and exclusion at such a young age, wondering if she could withstand it. His heart suddenly felt a little sympathy for Li Zhihui.

  Lee Ji-hyun was also asked to take a break after defeating three opponents, just like Lee Seung-gi. Later, other guests including Lee Jin, Yoon Eun-hye, Jeon Hye-bin and Jang Sung-won took turns to show off their "tongue skills", but the four of them were not very good at this kind of thing and didn't want to stand out too much, so they either got knocked out immediately or stopped after defeating one opponent. When they lost and left the stage, they all made a frustrated and helpless expression for the sake of the show's effect, but in reality, they didn't really care that much.

  Finally, in this game, Jiang Hudong's team won again. Then PD announced a temporary break, and the artists went to their respective dressing rooms to change into stylish clothes, preparing for the next segment "Partner Hero Forever".

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