At 2 PM on November 10th, the doors of the performance venue opened. Staff began checking tickets, the audience gradually entered, and the 40 trainees who had already completed their makeup and styling, along with the six girl group senior sisters, gathered in the backstage lounge.
After a while, the host and mentors took the stage, and the third public performance of “Next stage” officially began.
The theme of this public performance was love. All three songs were related to love. Quentin’s assigned performance order this time was the last group.
Logically speaking, “Senior Sister, No” had the earliest timeline among the three songs, being about campus romance, so it should have been the first to go on stage.
But after several rounds of rehearsals, the production team found that the two teams that chose “Senior Sister, No,” namely Quentin’s team and Cheng Shaozi’s team, had stage performances that were far superior to the other four groups.
If the two best-performing stages were put out at the beginning, it might raise the audience’s aesthetic standards and expectations too early, causing the audience to find the later performances increasingly boring.
Additionally, compared to the “emotional release of high-pressure workplace romance” and “fast-food romance between mature men and women” presented by the other two songs, The “youthful campus first love” of “Senior Sister, No” emphasized the budding feelings of young people, which was more in line with mainstream values, and was suitable for ending the public performance to elevate the theme.
Although there was no requirement for a talent show’s public performance to be so value-correct, it was still better to elevate it if possible.
Moreover, the “love” described in the first two songs was not quite in line with the inner fantasies of young girls. The talk of sleeping around was relatively superficial, and only the faces and bodies of the handsome guys could compensate for this kind of flaw.
In the end, the clean and simple romantic crushes of the young boys and girls in “Senior Sister, No” would be used to conclude the entire public performance.
Yes, the concept was very complete, and the public performance went very smoothly. Everything was developing steadily according to the production team’s plan.
Only… Perhaps it was because the theme of “love” was too suggestive, or because the chemistry between the songs and the trainees was too good, the feedback from the audience was extremely enthusiastic, and the live screams were deafening.
The first two groups to take the stage performed the song “Boss,” which focused on “workplace romance.”
It was unknown who taught these two groups of trainees, or how they had suddenly gotten so clever, but one by one, they displayed their competitive masculinity to the fullest on stage!
In order to preserve the high-pressure of the workplace while retaining the inherent conflict of desire and forbidden love, both groups coincidentally chose the finance industry as the workplace background.
The difference between this public performance and the previous two was that before each group’s stage officially began, the large screen would play a five-minute VCR, telling the rehearsal stories of the trainees behind the stage.
Except for the production team staff, no one had seen these VCRs. Neither the audience below the stage nor the trainees in the backstage lounge had ever seen their own or others’ rehearsal experiences from this perspective before.
Thus, under everyone’s watchful eyes, the discussions between the two groups and the two senior sisters about “workplace romance” were openly and honestly displayed.
The video clips began in the meeting room.
Senior sister Ling Ping from Zhou Zilin’s group spoke first, “Let me say this first, for the performance effect, let’s try to interpret workplace romance from two different angles. The lyrics describe falling in love with the company boss, but it doesn’t say whether it’s a male boss or a female boss.”
“Oh, I get what you mean. You mean our two groups present the stage from the angles of ‘a female boss and her seven handsome subordinates’ versus ‘a female employee and her seven handsome bosses’?”
Senior sister Wen Yi from Liao Fei’s group smiled, propping up her chin, “Not bad, not bad. I’ve read a lot of similar novels and short dramas. I’m fine with either.”
Ling Ping: “…You don’t have to smile like that. You’ve scared the juniors so much they don’t dare to speak.”
Wen Yi patted the shoulder of the nervous young man sitting next to her, “Really scared? No way, Comrade Xiao Liao, you’re your team’s captain. Straighten your back, cheer up!”
Liao Fei stiffly stifled a burp.
Wen Yi almost burst out laughing, “How were you all grouped? It just happened to put you thin-skinned, easily embarrassed ones together… Pingping, it looks like my side can only choose ‘female boss and seven subordinates.’ As the senior sister, I’ll be the boss.”
Ling Ping said helplessly, “Yes, it seems that’s the only way.”
Zhou Zilin, sitting across from her, cooperated with a smile, “That’s fine. The average age of our group is older than Senior Sister Pingping. We older trainees can only play Pingping’s bosses on stage.”
Wen Yi blinked, “Then you need to assign the roles well. Who is the domineering CEO, who is the celibate senior executive, who is the elite lawyer. Office romance, and suit-and-tie uniform killers! But thinking carefully, seven bosses, Pingping’s job-hopping efficiency is a bit high.”
Ling Ping looked at Wen Yi with a complex expression and said tactfully, “Xiao Wen, when you’re out and about, tone it down a little.”
‘Domineering CEO, celibate senior executive, elite lawyer… What a rich imagination! Since you’re so good at talking, why not pay attention to your juniors’ expressions? Even Zhou Zilin was about to lose it.
From the moment the VCR started playing, the live performance venue was filled with laughter and liveliness.
Since most of the senior sisters’ fans had failed to complete the daily check-in quest for “NS” and couldn’t qualify for the ticket lottery, almost all the audience members who got tickets were the trainees’ fans.
The audience’s impression of Aurora was still stuck on “the survival show group that debuted last year.” Most people couldn’t even name all the Aurora members, so naturally they didn’t know each member’s personality either.
“Haha, this girl is so outgoing, I like her!”
“I remember Wen Yi isn’t very old either, she’s so bold and funny. I haven’t seen her on variety shows before. She seems very variety-savvy.”
“To be honest, their assigned roles are quite appropriate. The “older sister-puppy little brother” feeling between Wen Yi and Liao Fei is too strong!”
“Yeah, it really is very suitable. I always felt Ling Ping had a kind of “salted fish” office worker vibe, but her figure is very good. Zhou Zilin and the others are also tall, mature handsome guys with great figures.”
**Salted fish means someone that lives a lazy, low effort life.
“Wow… Someone make a drama for them, so exciting!”
“CEO and employee is an old trope. One, two, three are all normal numbers in TV dramas, but if it’s seven… hehe, things suddenly seem to get interesting.”
In the backstage lounge, the trainees from the other four groups were watching with wide eyes and stunned expressions, while the four girl group senior sisters were very calm, looking as if they had expected this all along.
Xue Mingzhu put his left hand on Quentin’s shoulder and his right elbow on Cui Yan’s shoulder, staring at the TV screen and saying, “Their song looks pretty interesting. The senior sisters are amazing. When I first saw ‘Boss,’ I never thought it could be performed like this.”
Wen Xinyi, sitting in the front row, naturally picked up the conversation, “After all, they are the senior sisters’ songs, so they definitely understand it better than we do. Many details of our group’s stage arrangement also relied on Senior Sister Zhang Fu’s guidance.”
Yan Qiao nodded in agreement, “Indeed, many of the interactions on stage look cooler and have more of a romantic feeling after the senior sister adjusted them.”
Zhang Fu coughed a few times, glanced at the seating positions of the other groups, made sure no one was paying attention to them, then said in a low voice, “Don’t exaggerate. Excessive praise is not acceptable.”
“Who is exaggerating? It’s the truth, okay?” Xue Mingzhu said as a matter of course, “Senior Sister, if you weren’t here, how would a bunch of inexperienced big guys like us that have never been in love perform campus romance? I don’t even have the concept in my head. It’s better to have me do a set of exam papers.”
Zhang Fu could not help but laugh out loud, “Pfft, big guys? Sorry… hehe, Xiao Xue, you continue.”
Xue Mingzhu did not understand what Zhang Fu was laughing at, “I’m serious, Senior Sister, don’t think I’m joking. There weren’t many people dating in my high school class. Even if they were dating, you couldn’t tell. I don’t know what they were doing. What’s the difference from friends? Weren’t they just sitting together doing practice questions and going to the cafeteria together?”
Wen Xinyi smiled and chimed in, “Xiao Xue is right. Those who haven’t been in love can only rely on imagination, but the imagination from a male perspective is very different from a female perspective. Most of the audience are girls. In this regard, we have to rely on the senior sisters.”
Perhaps this was also the reason the production team chose to invite girl group guests for the “love” themed public performance.
Zhang Fu blushed from the praise, “It’s not as exaggerated as you say. I haven’t been in a relationship either. I’m just taking advantage of my age, being older than you and having seen a few more things.”
Xue Mingzhu was shocked and almost lost control of his volume, “Senior Sister hasn’t been in love? That can’t be, right? Senior Sister is so pretty and yet hasn’t been in a relationship?!”
Zhang Fu: “…I’ll take that as a compliment. Appearance doesn’t have that much to do with dating, right? Quentin has never been in a relationship either.”
Xue Mingzhu said bluntly, “Quentin just graduated high school. It’s normal that he hasn’t been in a relationship.”
Zhang Fu made a gesture of clutching her heart, “Are you saying I’m old? Okay, compared to you guys, I kind of am.”
Cui Yan raised his hand and nudged Xue Mingzhu, “Senior Sister is a few months younger than me. If that’s considered old, where does that leave Ah Yang?”
22-year-old fresh graduate Qi Yang silently felt the indirect hit: “…”
Quentin, with an 18-year-old exterior and 25-year-old soul who considered himself a “mature and reliable man”, slowly withdrew his gaze and continued to watch the “Boss” stage with great interest.
What’s old or not old, they were all post-00s youngsters.
While they were chatting, the first two groups’ “Boss” stages had all ended.
The two groups of trainees magnified their strengths and avoided the weaknesses, substituting performance for dancing, reducing the proportion of dance, and amplifying the interactions among team members. The resulting performance was extremely excellent.
If you took the solo cams of individual trainees and compared them with their own performances from the previous two public performances, you could see how obvious their progress had been over these two months.
The audience’s cheers and screams were so loud that the production team began to worry about whether the live sound recording would be affected, but such enthusiastic feedback also filled the staff with satisfaction.
They whispered in the backstage;
“Do you feel like the trainees are particularly hardworking in this public performance?”
“!! Same feeling! Even the brothers at the cafeteria said they’ve been eating faster, and fewer and fewer people are eating at the cafeteria. Many people are taking their meals back to eat.”
“Maybe because this is the last public performance, and most people know they won’t make it to the finals, so they’re pushing themselves to the limit?”
“Or maybe it’s because this time the big shots grouped together. The other groups don’t have any big shots leading them. If I were them, I definitely wouldn’t want to becrushed too badly by Quentin and Cheng Shaozi’s groups. It would hurt their pride.”
“Oh… so the absence of a strong team leader to handle the pressure has made them more self-disciplined? They’re all going all out.”
“This ‘Boss’ performance is indeed excellent. Do you want to bet? I think after this episode airs, they’ll become popular for a while!”
“What does ‘become popular for a while’ mean? Are you saying they’ll be more popular than Quentin?”
“…You’re cheating. Who can compare with Quentin? Just bet whether they can break out of the circle and go viral. Mm… let’s say whether the official stage video can get over a million likes!”
The experienced staff member glanced at him disdainfully. They were all old foxes, who was playing mind games with whom?
Whether a stage can become popular and break out of the circle would be obvious from the audience’s reaction. Why bet?
He changed the subject and urged, “Go, go, go. I won’t bet with you. These two groups have started the game section. Go call the next two groups to get ready.”
