DYUTVOBGA Chapter 49

There were still three hours until the first public performance officially began.

The trainees on the bus had not yet had their hair and makeup done. They had set off early, boarding the bus in an orderly fashion after finishing their morning exercises at the recording base.

Young faces, free of makeup, were filled with the youthful vitality brought by collagen.

They stepped off the bus in small groups, smiling brightly and greeting the fans waiting on both sides of the road.

[Regardless of whether they’re my fans or not, I’ll charm them first anyway.jpg]

The girls obligingly replied with a few excited “wows”.

“Eh? This guy is quite handsome offline.”

“Who’s the one on the right? I feel like I haven’t seen him in the show…”

“They’re all makeup free? C

You really can’t tell, their facial features seem quite good?”

“The curly-haired one at the back has a cute smile, is he from BKL?”

“Where’s Quentin? Isn’t Quentin on this bus?”

“Probably not. Yan Qiao doesn’t seem to be here either, Xiao Xue isn’t here either… Could our 3A be on the same bus?”

Jiang Ke did not participate in the discussions around her. Although she was indeed a social butterfly, right now she was focused on her fan-site duties and didn’t want to be distracted.

While waiting for Quentin to get off, she conveniently took photos of about ten other trainees. After editing them later, she could sell them to other fan-site masters and big fans.

Although she wasn’t short of money, who would complain about earning more? She really loved the feeling of making money.

Soon, all the trainees from the first bus had disembarked. The second bus that was following closely behind slowly pulled up.

The door opened, and the first to jump off was a tall boy who looked both youthful and fierce.

He was wearing his own casual clothes: a simple oversized T-shirt paired with cargo pants made of quick-dry fabric. His every move exuded a natural cool guy handsomeness.

Jiang Ke subconsciously pressed the shutter, then heard the girl next to her exclaim sincerely: “Wow! So handsome!”

“Oh my God, is this Xue Mingzhu?! He’s completely not photogenic?”

“No, this person and the rapper from the initial stage are like two different people. Is the difference between his bare face and with makeup this big?”

“Xiao Xue really isn’t suitable for makeup… He should belong to the light and natural makeup type. I didn’t realize before when watching the main episodes that he himself is actually so fair-skinned.”

“Eh, why isn’t he coming over…what is he going to do?”

They saw the boy who just jumped off the bus walk straight along it towards the rear window. Relying on his 1.8-meter height, he raised his hand and tapped repeatedly on the window glass.

The beige curtains inside the bus were tightly closed, making it impossible to see who was inside. But judging by Xue Mingzhu’s increasingly enthusiastic knocking, one could easily guess it was someone he had a good relationship with.

This inexplicable action quickly attracted the attention of the surrounding fans.

A few seconds later, amidst the whispering discussion of the crowd, the curtain slowly lifted a corner.

A fluffy head slowly emerged from behind the thin curtain. A pair of half-squinted green eyes looked down from above at Xue Mingzhu outside the bus.

The scene went silent for two seconds, then erupted into even louder cheers the next moment.

“Ahhhh it’s Quentin! Am I seeing things? It’s really Quentin!”

“Why does he seem even more handsome in person than on the show… It’s too exaggerated, how can someone really look like this in real life?!”

“Oh no, I’ve fallen. I’m indeed a fickle woman. This face is just too satisfying.”

“His face is so small. You can’t tell on the show, but offline with no makeup he looks really young. I believe now that he’s truly underage.”

“I’m going crazy… I’ve never seen such a good-looking person in real life… Can I use this face just once in my next life?!”

Jiang Ke reacted quickly. The moment she confirmed the other party’s identity, she had no time to marvel or admire. She immediately raised her camera towards the window, her thumb clicking continuously.

She switched from taking photos to recording video, completely capturing the entire process of the black-haired, green-eyed boy slowly emerging from the small window.

The road outside the public performance venue was lined with lush evergreen trees. The brilliant early October sunlight filtered through the treetops, casting scattered light and shadows on the ground.

Halos of light occasionally appeared in the video lens, creating a dreamlike, ethereal quality.

The camera’s focus was locked on the boy’s face behind the window glass.

His skin was extremely fair, easily overexposed under direct sunlight. Fortunately, the bus curtains were tightly closed, and the light inside was dim and gentle.

The extremely handsome face, so exquisite it made people subconsciously marvel its beauty, was captured on the small screen behind the camera clearly.

Jiang Ke saw a diamond-shaped spot of light float in from under the curtain Quentin lifted, landing squarely on his left cheek.

It made that small patch of skin appear as if transparent.

Even the finest mutton-fat jade couldn’t compare.

The bus’s parking spot was some distance from Jiang Ke. She couldn’t hear the conversation between Xue Mingzhu and Quentin, only seeing the former gesture a few times with his raised hand, seemingly telling Quentin to get off the bus.

The boy by the window rubbed his eyes and nodded, tilting his head back to yawn.

The girls who noticed this couldn’t help but clench their fists.

“Wah! So handsome, so cute, how can a boy be this cute!!!”

“Quentin’s true form is a cat, right? A sleepy cat woken up by humans.”

“Was he sleeping the whole time on the bus? His hair is all messy, he really has a lot of hair… It feels like a long-haired cat that would shed like crazy on a hot day.”

Jiang Ke heard the girl next to her, who just a minute ago was praising Xue Mingzhu’s appearance endlessly, muttering to herself: “Damn it, being this handsome is so discouraging. Nuwa is really a biased woman, and I’m a fickle woman too… Que…Ting… are these the characters?… Oh, found him. He has so many fans?”

The girl scrolled through her phone screen, mumbling: “Is this a new account? Why is there nothing? Whatever, I’ll follow for now…”

“Ahem.”

Jiang Ke coughed lightly, turned her head and smiled at the girl: “Little sister, if you’re interested in Quentin, you can follow Quentin’s discussion group first. The group has set up five big fan chats now, the review process is quite relaxed, you can come in and play together.”

The girl stared blankly at Jiang Ke, belatedly realizing that her earlier mutterings had been overheard.

Her entire face instantly turned bright red. She gripped her phone tightly and stammered: “Oh, oh… I, I see.”

Jiang Ke blinked: “Are you here to watch the performance alone?”

“…No.” The girl quickly explained, “I’m not here to watch the performance. I, I was just passing by. I saw so many people gathered here, so I came to join the excitement.”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, and she pursed her lips awkwardly: “They’re from that very popular boy group survival show recently, right? I’ve heard of it, I just didn’t expect them to be this handsome…”

Jiang Ke understood immediately upon hearing this.

The official profile photos taken by the program team had truly ruined the reputation of “NS” completely. How many passers-by mistakenly thought our “NS” was a gathering of ugly men? Who knows how many potential viewers were lost because of this.

“Yes, welcome to check out the show.”

Jiang Ke said with a smile: “If you still like Quentin after watching the show, you’re also welcome to come play in the group chat.”

The girl nodded vigorously and said seriously: “Mhm! I’ll watch it when I get back!”

By now, Quentin had already gotten off the bus. Xue Mingzhu naturally raised his arm and draped it over his shoulder, saying something with a laugh.

Quentin glanced at him and his lips moved, seeming to reply with just a single syllable.

Then Xue Mingzhu suddenly pressed his hand on the back of Quentin’s head and ruffled it vigorously, making the latter’s already fluffy, unruly hair even messier.

Quentin lowered his head and dodged perfunctorily, but didn’t manage to avoid it and just let him do as he pleased.

Actually, these small interactions were very common among boys, just ordinary playful banter.

But when they happened between two handsome guys…

Well, it’s a bit easy to ship.

No…it’s very easy to ship!

Just look, the two aren’t even acting anymore, Xue-Que is real!!!

With sharp eyes, Jiang Ke spotted a few girls huddling together excitedly and chattering, their eyes glowing green as they stared at the two trainees not far away, their cameras very steady.

Just the professional discipline of fangirls 😛

As an iron-blooded solo fan, Jian Ke sighed inwardly. The CP fans on the forum are going to be ecstatic today.

And look at her…

A proper fan-site admin, yet she couldn’t even get a single solo candid photo of her own idol!

Damn it, is there glue on Quentin? Xue Mingzhu, are you stuck to him or what! Is it necessary for a grown man to be this clingy?!

Jiang Ke pressed the shutter while shouting in her heart, but her voice called out sweetly: “Quentin~ Could you look at the camera please?”

She intentionally raised her voice, but it was too noisy around. Fans from all sides were cheering and shouting, and her words were easily buried in the crowd.

Yet, Quentin heard.

The boy turned towards the sound. The distinctive green eyes passed through the crowd and looked straight at the camera.

“…”

Jiang Ke’s hand holding the camera shook. She unconsciously held her breath, the thumping of her heart growing louder and louder.

At this moment, she suddenly understood the feeling of “heart pounding like a drum” firsthand.

The slightly shaking camera, moving with her breath and heartbeat, didn’t affect the appeal of the main character in the video. Instead, it wrapped up the photographer’s subtle emotions.

Expectation, awe, infatuation, daze…

Countless emotions derived from sincere affection were all projected onto the boy at the center of the camera, waiting to be passed on in the future to every viewer who saw the video.

Jiang Ke’s shooting angle wasn’t ideal at this moment. She was standing on the left side of the road, closer to Xue Mingzhu, which meant she could easily be blocked by Xue Mingzhu while shooting.

But… it was still okay, after all, Xue Mingzhu was also quite handsome.

And he was just the right amount of handsome… the kind of handsome that could attract casual netizens, but wouldn’t steal Quentin’s spotlight.

Behind one handsome face is an even more handsome face. This phrase itself carries a sense of using a brick to attract jade. Quentin, of course, was the jade.

Jiang Ke took over ten photos in succession, then seized the time to send her blessings: “Quentin, good luck with the public performance! Many, many people like you, you are the most, most, most amazing!”

Such straightforward praise was common within fan circles. All fans who chased their idols offline had endless love and praise for their favorite stars. Some would express it openly and generously, while others would write it subtly and reservedly in letters.

At times like these, the star’s ability to attract fans offline was put to the test.

Although most hardcore fans would spoil their idols, if the idol acted too cold, it could still be disheartening. There were many fans who became disillusioned and left the fandom after attending offline events.

The key was, offline fans would record videos. If caught acting indifferent and perfunctory and it was posted online, it becomes a devastating blow.

This is one of the reasons why more and more celebrities wear masks at all times while traveling for schedules and appearances.

As an experienced senior fan-site admin, Jiang Ke was well aware of all these matters.

Last year, because her previous idol’s downfall was earth-shattering, she swore a vicious oath to never chase stars again. Since then, she has applied all the photo-taking and editing experience accumulated over her years as a fan-site admin to outings and photoshoots with her girlfriends.

Who would have thought that this year, she would be lured by a compilation video she stumbled upon and end up running to Youth TV to watch all the “NS” main episodes and spin-off shows. Then she was directly hammered into the pit by Quentin from the initial stage, and in a daze, renewed a yearly membership for Youth TV…

To be honest, before coming offline this time, she felt both excited and nervous.

Jiang Ke learned from the forum that Quentin had just finished the college entrance exam in June, and it was said his results were extremely excellent.

If there was no one with the same name as Quentin among the Yanhai University freshmen of the year 2025, then the “Quentin” they found on Yan University’s official website was undoubtedly Quentin himself.

The “top student” label was indeed a great tool for attracting fans, but it didn’t work on Jiang Ke. Who wasn’t a high-achieving student from a prestigious school?

When chasing idols, she only cared about the idol’s own appearance, professional skills, personality, and character. She liked male idols who smiled a lot and spoiled their fans.

However, even though only one main episode of “NS” had aired, it wasn’t hard to see that Quentin was not someone who smiled often.

Therefore, Jiang Ke was very worried that the Quentin she met offline would have a cold personality, indifferent toward fans.

But if Quentin walked over smiling to greet her, she would feel that Quentin was completely out of character, and then start suspecting he was someone who often put on an act.

Damn it! It was all because the psychological shadow left by her previous idol’s collapse was too large, causing her to now be paranoid even while chasing a star.

However… These worries quietly disappeared for the most part after seeing Quentin in person.

qwq Who understands? Facing this face, it’s really hard to stick to one’s standards.

So, it’s fine… even if Quentin ignored her, she could brainwash herself into thinking her voice was too soft, the surroundings were too noisy, and Quentin didn’t hear!

Jiang Ke had prepared herself mentally, but when she really spoke out, an uncontrollable nervousness still wrapped around her heart like tightening vines.

Her breath caught in her nose, her heartbeat rushed to her throat, and her whole body trembled to the point her fingertips went numb.

This feeling… was exactly the same as the first time she chased a star offline many years ago.

The black-haired, green-eyed boy gradually overlapped with the figure blurred in memory from many years ago.

A long-forgotten white moonlight instantly crossed the river of time, reappearing before her eyes.

The boy looked up at her, his voice clear and powerful: “Mhm, thank you. Please enjoy the performance fully later.”

The expression on his face was faint, and his eyes were as calm as a lake surface. Such steady emotions instead gave people a sense of grounded security.

Jiang Ke’s dazed consciousness was instantly pulled back to reality, and the distant memory was thrown aside.

At this moment, her eyes could only see the boy in the black hoodie.

Quentin probably noticed her daze, because after speaking, he tilted his head in confusion, and added reassuringly:

“There’s a surprise, it won’t let you down.”