September 28th, afternoon.
Wei Man sat at her dorm desk, repeatedly refreshing the Youth TV page for [Next Stage], muttering complaints: “It’s already 11:56, why hasn’t it updated yet? Do they have to stick exactly to twelve o’clock? Other variety shows all update early.”
Mi Tong at the opposite desk was unwrapping a milk tea package, while Mo Fan at the next desk swiftly placed three buckets of chicken strips, rice cakes, and fries on Wei Man’s desk, simultaneously moving her own chair to sit beside Wei Man.
It was rare for all three roommates to be chasing the same show, and they happened to have a holiday with no classes on Sunday.
So, the three of them hit it off, ordering takeout an hour in advance so they only had to wait for the program update and eat, drink, and chat while watching the show.
“Don’t be impatient, just four more minutes and you can watch a bunch of handsome guys sing and dance. Fantasize for these four minutes, and when you snap back to reality, you can start watching directly.”
Mi Tong smiled, carrying three cups of iced milk tea as she sat down: “Here, your pearl milk tea, Fanfan’s Watermelon Jelly Freeze.”
Wei Man hummed and grumbled as she reached out to take it, her other hand still holding the mouse to refresh.
Just as she inserted the straw into her milk tea, she looked up and saw the loading symbol for “Next Stage” appear on the page.
After lagging for a few seconds, the black and gold cover of the first main episode quietly appeared in the directory list.
The title was [EP01 – Initial Stage Rating (Part 1)].
Below was a line of small text: Four mentors offer sharp critiques. Who will take the throne for Class A?
“Ohhhh! It’s here, it’s here!!”
Wei Man instantly perked up, clicking into the main episode without hesitation. Perhaps it was the campus network issue or too many people were waiting to get in, they waited a full 10 seconds before finally squeezing in.
She asked casually, “Should we turn on the barrage? It depends on your habits, I’m fine either way.”
Mo Fan bit her straw, “It’s better not to, they block the view, and at this time, there probably aren’t many barrages anyway. Even if there are, they’re probably useless comments like…”
“Is anyone there?”, “No one in the barrage?” and various colored barrages spamming names…
She had just finished speaking when she saw Wei Man quickly type out a few lines.
[Check-in! I’m here for Quentin!!]
[/Quentin/Quentin/Quentin/Quentin/Quentin/]
Mo Fan: “…”
‘Uh, this.’
Mi Tong wasn’t surprised at all; after all, atmosphere-building barrages were standard practice for talent show variety shows.
Moreover, after they finished watching together, she would privately rewatch it using her own account with barrages on. By then, she would inevitably engage in some cyber sparring with viewers from all over the country via barrages.
It’s just that her style of posting was different from Wei Man’s.
Well, she was an experienced internet troll, specializing in arguing back against picky, fault-finding barrages.
The girls’ respective internal monologues didn’t affect the playback of the main episode. The opening of over ten minutes showed the four mentors sitting together, browsing and evaluating the trainees’ resumes.
The post-production editing enlarged the resumes the mentors were commenting on to the right side of the screen. The three highly educated girls, who had just started university and were sitting in front of the computer, subconsciously focused on the handwritings and content on the resumes.
Wei Man: “Wow, the handwriting on this one is so exaggerated, it feels like something a liberal arts student wrote frantically right before turning in their exam paper… I wonder what QT’s handwriting is like.”
Mo Fan: “Hmm…how should I say it? I feel like the ID photos of these people look so abstract, it’s a bit like the uncanny valley effect.”
Mi Tong: “Haha, these ID photos are the official profile pictures that got heavily criticized on the forums a while ago. Blame the show’s photoshopping skills. Not everyone can make a real person look fake through editing.”
Mo Fan was about to make a sarcastic comment when the next second, a new resume appeared on screen.
The handsome boy with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes in the ID photo was so familiar that her eyes widened abruptly, and the Watermelon Jelly Freeze she had just sucked up almost choked her windpipe.
“Ahem ahem ahem…!!!”
She covered her mouth and coughed violently a few times, her eyes glued to the screen, her face full of shock.
‘What the hell?!’
‘How could he go participate in a survival show???’
Mo Fan’s reaction was too intense and her expression was unconcealed, immediately drawing the attention of her two roommates beside her.
“What’s going on?” Wei Man’s gaze shifted between the screen and Mo Fan, suddenly having a flash of insight, “You know this guy?”
Mi Tong’s tone was subtle: “Hmm… Qi Yang? Isn’t he the actor who played Qi Guanshun in last year’s hit historical drama ‘Po Jun Xing’? He’s quite popular on Next Stage right now. Fanfan, what’s… your relationship with him?”
She had never seen such an emotional expression on Mo Fan’s face before. Years of experience chasing idol boy groups made her instinctively alert, but the next moment she remembered that Qi Yang wasn’t her bias, so her heart instantly settled, and her desire to watch the drama gradually took over.
Oh, could it be that she’d get first-hand major gossip right as the show started?
Mi Tong silently pushed up the glasses on her nose bridge.
Mo Fan’s shocked mood was abruptly suppressed by her two roommates’ keen, gossipy eyes.
“What are you looking at! It’s not what you think…”
As she spoke, her voice gradually faded, “Okay, okay, I know him. Let me be clear first, I didn’t mean to deliberately hide it from you before, but neither of you chase actors, so, well, I never talked about it with you…”
“Ah, just tell us directly.”
Mo Fan looked at the computer screen. The mentors’ segment had ended by now, and the scene cut to three hotels, with three large buses parked in the hotel parking lots.
Immediately after, the screen split into a nine-square grid, showing a group of boys dressed simply and elegantly, pulling their luggage out of their hotel rooms one by one.
She watched the program absentmindedly and replied, “I mentioned it to you before, my parents divorced, my brother and I each went with one parent. Qi Yang… is that very good-looking biological older brother of mine.”
Wei Man: “?!!!”
Mi Tong: “… Wow.”
“So now I have connections within the industry?” Wei Man murmured dazedly. “When surfing the forums in the future, can I also start sentences with phrases like ‘a friend of mine in the industry’?”
Mi Tong licked her lips, unusually flustered as she adjusted her glasses: “Then, Fanfan, will you go visit the Next Stage set later?”
“!!!”
At these words, Wei Man immediately turned to look at Mo Fan, her eyes shining brightly: “Fanfan ah, if you gain wealth and rank, do not forget your friends!”
“Ahem…burp!”
Mo Fan, who was stared at by two pairs of increasingly bright eyes, paused while drinking her juice and almost choked on the coconut jelly in her mouth, letting out a muffled burp.
Actually, she hadn’t quite processed it herself, but she tried her best to put on a calm expression and raised her chin: “… Alright, alright, is it necessary? It’s just visiting the set. Don’t worry, if there’s a chance in the future, I definitely won’t forget to bring you along.”
“Yeahhh!!!”
Before they could calm down, they heard an exclamation from the show the next second.
A boy with a perm and tin-foil curled hair was pressed against the bus window, his eyes wide and round as he stared outside, spitting out a string of “beep beep” censored words.
His companion next to him laughed at his exaggerated reaction, so he pulled him to look outside too: “Look for yourself!”
“Oh my god! That person… how can someone look like that in real life!”
The boy’s face showed genuine, unfeigned amazement, and his face was practically pressed against the glass. The cameraman outside the bus gave his window a big close-up shot.
His eyes were too bright, so bright that one couldn’t help but wonder what incredibly handsome guy he had seen.
Soon, the camera panned over.
A tall, slender boy dragged his suitcase, walking over from the hotel entrance from afar. The overly brilliant sunlight caused the lens to blur for a moment.
Snow-white skin and gorgeous purple intertwined. A face with excellent bone structure and breathtaking beauty broke through the hazy light and shadow and suddenly appeared in the close-up shot.
The boy’s fluffy black hair was tousled by the wind, his eyelids drooped casually, and his green eyes were slightly narrowed in the sun and wind.
A straight nose bridge, slightly prominent lip peaks, and lips that were pale but not in a sickly lip color.
Like a jade sculpture, cold to the touch yet warm in texture, making one involuntarily want to possess it, yet hesitating to approach due to feelings of inferiority.
He looked… really, a bit too handsome, too beautiful.
Wei Man swallowed, her heart pounding.
Her trembling fingers tapped the keyboard, sending out a string of “ahhhhh”, “so handsome” in the barrage as she muttered to herself uncontrollably: “If he’s this good-looking on camera, what must he look like offline… Damn it, why didn’t I manage to get tickets for the October 2nd performance? Otherwise, I could have seen Quentin in just three days… Wuuu…”
“…”
Mo Fan came back to her senses after the sudden visual impact, watching the comments Wei Man sent float past the top of the screen where the barrage was closed. She suddenly understood why some people were so keen on posting this kind of meaningless, repetitive comments.
First, to vent the swelling emotions in their hearts.
Second, such a handsome face deserved the grand display of a full screen of screaming comments.
Not to mention the audience in front of the screen, the trainees on the show reacted even more exaggeratedly than the audience.
The bus windows were crowded with faces pressed against them, each one a priceless expression; even though they themselves weren’t bad-looking, they were stunned by the boy of the same gender.
This shot lasted only 15 seconds, with even less time focused on Quentin’s face that appeared for 3 seconds. Lu Kui’s amazement was even longer than his screen time.
But these three seconds were too stunning; the shorter the time, the more it made people’s hearts itch.
If Mo Fan was watching alone, she would definitely have dragged the progress bar back and forth, pausing repeatedly to take screenshots.
Not everyone paid close attention to the content released by the Next Stage official account like Wei Man and the others. Most future viewers flooding into this show might not even know Quentin’s name, but they were destined to be firmly captivated by this fleeting glimpse.
Who is he?
What kind of person is he?
How is his skill level?
He will definitely debut, right!
…
Various thoughts took root in the audience’s minds, accompanied by intense curiosity and interest, deeply imprinting that black-haired, green-eyed boy in their hearts.
The post-production editing of Next Stage was quite skilled; the program’s pacing, comedic moments, and plot progression were very much to the taste of young audiences.
After the 101 trainees got off the bus, they walked the red carpet in pairs or groups one after another. The sunlight was so bright it made people squint, yet it accentuated the positive, soaring drive of the young people even more.
The three girls sipped milk tea as they watched with great interest. Mi Tong, a seasoned face con with considerable research into male idols’ bare-faced foundations, commented knowledgeably.
“This one’s face is a bit flat, it relies more on styling. Front view 6 points, side view 4 points. I recommend lying on the operating table for a nose job.”
“This one’s features are somewhat three-dimensional, but his teeth are uneven, and there’s a bit of mandibular retraction. It’s a pity. Either get braces or go for a Japanese style… He looks quite cute when smiling though.”
“Huh? Isn’t this Yan Qiao, the one you liked before, Manman? He looks much more handsome in motion than in stills. Nice nose, it’s hard to achieve even with plastic surgery, right? These lips… tsk tsk, they look very kissable.”
“Speaking of which, this curly-haired one is quite cute. Is he the guy who praised Quentin on the bus earlier? He’s a 7-point handsome guy, curly hair adds 0.5 points. Give the company stylist a bonus!”
“Eh? Fanfan, your brother’s making his entrance. Why does he have no expression on his face? He looks quite cool… But this face is really handsome. I even watched a few episodes of ‘Po Jun Xing’ last year. I feel he looks even better in ancient costume.”
The average attractiveness of this group of trainees was indeed not bad. Although not everyone was flawless from 360 degrees, a group of youthful, clean-cut handsome guys together definitely lived up to the phrase “a feast for the eyes.”
As for the official profile photos announced earlier?
No problem, no problem, blame the photography team. There must have been black fans mixed in to cause trouble!
If one person is ugly, it’s that person’s problem, but if everyone is ugly, it’s the photographer’s fault.
The three of them chatted more and more excitedly, until the initial stage ratings officially began, and Quentin, who pre-selected Class A, was suddenly called down by a mentor.
The other trainees on screen were discussing noisily, and the three girls off screen also panicked a little.
“Going on stage so soon… This is bad. Is Quentin getting the ‘flower vase offered as sacrifice’ script?”
Wei Man tried to dig up her scarce memories of the previous season’s girl group survival show: “According to variety show routines, the strong ones are supposed to go last. Those who go on stage first are usually cannon fodder serving as foils!”
Mo Fan tried to think positively: “Not necessarily. Quentin was very confident during the pre-selection segment earlier. Maybe… he’s prepared quite well?”
Mi Tong looked solemn: “If his skills are strong, confidence is the icing on the cake. But if his skills aren’t up to par… Quentin will probably get blackened badly this time.”
Just as they began to worry, the scene changed to show Quentin showing off.
The boy turning his head and raising his hand to gesture for quiet towards the noisy crowd was simply too handsome, showing not a trace of nervousness.
Too confident.
Too open and upright.
But the problem was…where did he get such great confidence?
Chen Shiyu asked the question on the audience’s behalf, and Quentin succinctly summarized his experience learning vocal music and dance.
“?! Really? The flower vase I finally have a crush on is actually skilled?”
Wei Man raised her hand to grab the mouse, muttering, “Wait a second, I need to turn on the barrage. Surely I’m not the only one who is shocked. I want to see everyone’s reaction!”
She clicked the left button with a “click.” The screen flashed, and layers upon layers of barrages instantly rolled in from the right side of the screen.
[？？Wow, you can’t just brag randomly]
[So handsome so handsome so handsome ahhhh husband!!!]
[No makeup, such a beautiful face, baby let me kiss you ＾3＾]
[Quentin’s fans must remember to vote every day!]
[Wow, if the main visual is also skilled… I dare not imagine how fierce the forum wars will be]
[So fake.. Intentionally not writing the resume was just waiting for the mentor to ask, right… So pretentious]
[Haha, believing Quentin is skilled is like believing I am Qin Shi Huang]
**Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the Qin Dynasty and the first emperor of China.
[And original composition, I’m laughing, anyone can boast about being an original musician these days]
[Just came from later, those who don’t believe just wait for the slap in the face, my face hurts for you already]
[From infront! High Energy warning ahead!!!]
The stage lights suddenly darkened, and an ethereal, melodious piano melody trickled in.
The moment the extremely beautiful, lingering intro rang out, the barrage seemed to clear for a moment, as if everyone was enchanted by the music and forgot to type comments.
Until the moment the boy in the black suit at the center of the stage officially began to sing and a barrage of comments more numerous than in any previous scene surged out. The screen full of question marks and exclamation marks signaled the dazed and confused state of countless viewers.
—Oh my God, Quentin’s singing voice is like this?
It’s too… too much!!!
[Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!]
[Mind blown… this vocal tone is amazing]
[Such an ambiguous way of singing, does he want to kiss me?]
[Wait, doesn’t anyone think his singing is ridiculously good? Surely it’s not pitch-corrected, right?]
[I need the audio… So good, my dream love song…]
[The arrangement is so impressive. If it’s really original, that’s terrifying]
[What’s the use of sounding good, I can’t understand the lyrics..]
[We are both 17 years old… How can the gap between people be so big?]
[Handsome guy, you came to the wrong show, right? What is this? I could rely on my face but I insist on relying on my talent?]
[With singing skills like this, doesn’t it crush the others? If I were a trainee on NS, I’d be panicking to death right now]
[Oh ho, the main vocal position gains another contender]
And when the song passed the halfway point, the chorus ended, and the boy standing in front of the microphone stand let go of the mic and took a step back.
Smooth and controlled dance moves slowly unfolded before the camera through his perfectly proportioned graceful figure.
Hair swayed due to the upward tilt of the neck.
The faintly visible lean abs when the silk shirt floated up lightly.
The slender waist with a powerful core.
The well-shaped fingers swaying and suspending in the air, calmly catching every beat. Although the movements weren’t fast, they seemed to leave afterimages.
There must be hooks on his fingertips, able to easily tug at the audience’s hearts and minds, making people’s breaths outside the screen speed up or slow down with his every move.
The director team’s top-notch camera work made this dance even more visually impactful, and the incoherent stream of “ahhhs” in the barrage never stopped.
The cameraman was too mischievous, often suddenly giving a close-up of those sharp, cool green eyes just as everyone was engrossed, sending a shiver down one’s spine, as if an electric current shot straight from the tailbone to the top of the head.
What a beautiful yet fierce pair of eyes.
The surging vitality almost overflowed the screen, teasing every restless, pounding heart in a wild and rampant way.
…
…
…
And thus, the first A was born.
