Tickets for the “Next Stage” public performance were distributed to the audience through a lottery. Fans had to complete daily tasks on the Youth TV program page to accumulate points, then use the points to exchange for lottery chances.
There were approximately 500 audience members at the first public performance. After removing the few tickets allocated to internet celebrities, media, and trainees’ family members, there were at least 400 tickets left in the lottery pool.
400 was really too few for a show that became massively popular immediately upon airing.
Fans of various contestants fought online, some acting sarcastic and posting ugly screenshots, others pretending to be fans while secretly criticizing and comparing idols to step on them, each wanting their own idol to win from the starting line. But in the end, even the big fans didn’t manage to get public performance tickets…
A mere 400 tickets fluttered one after another into the hands of the “silent majority.” Jiang Ke, who joined the fandom late, didn’t even have a lottery chance.
So how did she get an admission ticket?
Of course…through the power of money.
Money can make the devil turn the millstone. Jiang Ke successfully bought a front-row ticket at a high price from a netizen on the forum who had posted their lottery screenshot. The seat was excellent, and had a great viewing angle, the kind of position that made fan-site admins ecstatic.
Unfortunately, professional filming equipment was prohibited inside the public performance venue. Jiang Ke uploaded the recorded videos to her laptop, then packed her DSLR camera into its bag and checked it in at the item storage area indicated by security.
At this point, there was still nearly an hour until the public performance officially began.
Jiang Ke found her seat, calmly opened her laptop, and began editing videos as if no one else was around.
Never doubt the work efficiency of a senior fan-site admin. In just half an hour, she successfully produced three videos and uploaded them together to her recently created forum account.
Topic: [251002_QT_NS — Road Candids || A Sleepy Little Q-Cat [cat head]]
Content: [[video.mp4]]
Topic: [251002_QT_NS — Road Candids || If I Could Take One More Look] Content: [[video.mp4]]
Topic: [251002_QT_NS — Road Candids || The Shaking Lens is My Heartbeat About to Leap Out] Content: [[video.mp4]]
Jiang Ke planned to manage two main accounts on the forum.
One was a new account with 0 followers called [Quentin_cuteginger], which was her dedicated fan-site account she created specifically for Quentin.
The other was an idol-sharp-commentary account with 500k+ followers called [Inner Fish Handsome & Beautiful Encyclopedia].
This was an account Jiang Ke registered eight years ago when she first started chasing stars, initially to target rival male idols. Later, it unexpectedly gained popularity and grew followers, gradually becoming a recognized pure-hater sharp-commentary blogger in the fandom.
She spent three days reposting, liking, and commenting on relevant hot posts, skillfully building up both the new and old accounts. She even prepared two separate phones, modified IP addresses, and avoided any potential loopholes that could expose her real identity.
Actually, the big fan account she used for her previous idol also had a considerable number of followers, nearly 200k. It was the most popular big fan in her previous idol’s fandom, virtually a female celebrity in the fan circle.
However, that account was decisively deleted last year after she passionately scolded her fallen idol ex-bias. She refused to leave her embarrassing star-chasing history on the internet.
Originally, she had sworn a venomous oath to never chase stars again. But who could have predicted a Quentin to suddenly appear?
Tsk, whatever, so what if she’s eating her words? Quentin is handsome and skilled, and she has money and time. What’s wrong with being a fan-site admin and chasing stars? She really loved the lively atmosphere of fan circles.
The people here speak nicely, everyone is talented, and she really liked it here.
However, the present Jiang Ke was no longer the little fool from eight years ago who would always brainwash herself to defend her previous idol. She did not hesitate to examine Quentin with the strictest standards. She hoped Quentin would not let down her heartbeat and expectations.
If he did let her down… she… she would try her best not to spoil him qwq
After posting the videos, Jiang Ke didn’t pay attention to the replies under the posts. Instead, she logged into her old account [Inner Fish Handsome & Beautiful Encyclopedia], which hadn’t been updated for a year, and posted a real-time repo post.
Topic: [Sisters! I have been reborn!! This time! I will take back everything that belongs to me!!!]
Content: [Currently in Yanhai, just got off the plane, currently sitting in the audience seats at the first public performance of a certain survival show that was very popular from the start. I plan to ride the wave of popularity and do a “Next Stage” sharp-review series. So, does anyone want to see NS real-time live report now? [magnifying glass]]
1L: [Shocked!! What caused the blogger who rarely updates to suddenly resurrect?]
2L: [Summoning the spirit finally succeeded… My electronic side dish, eating isn’t enjoyable without you www]
3L: [NS??? Oh my god, sis, are we going to fall into the same pit in this life?!]
4L: [Tell the truth, did you get a new bias that made you resume updates? Which little handsome guy hooked our sis back? I have to kowtow to him for that [knocking wooden fish]]
5L: [Wow, sis, are you this lucky? You actually got an NS ticket?]
6L: [Sister, you’re late. The first wave of sharp-reviews for the NS official photos just passed. How about you make up for it? I want to see sister’s sharp reviews of the ugly guys [star-eyed]]
7L(OP): [What’s there to say about those official photos? Except for the three brothers Que, Qi, and Wen who can enter and leave the plastic surgery hospital unscathed, the others are all very normal. Relying on looks to eat is impossible. Those interested, please go lie down on the operating table, okay?]
8L: [Yes!!! Finally someone thinks the same as me!]
9L: [A bunch of people online brag about how everyone’s handsome….official photos are not photogenic, lol, if you’re not photogenic can you still be called a handsome guy? Then why are Que, Qi, Wen photogenic but your brother isn’t?]
10L: [Cui Yan is actually okay too… I feel he’s even a bit more handsome than Wen Xinyi]
11L(OP): [Sorry, this streamer doesn’t go for dark skin. The whiter the man, the more beautiful, cool white skin yyds.]
12L: [I don’t like dark skin either, but Cui Yan’s type of dark skin is really good, chocolate honey skin is really fragrant… slurp]
13L: [Leave alone the dark skin… isn’t the most attractive thing about Cui Yan his big chest…]
14L: [Whoever comes to NS has to take a sip of Cui Kun’s chest before leaving [yellow heart] [yellow heart]]
15L: [One black, one white, I really love it. The two of them have sexy bodies, [blushing] Even better looking than those short video borderline male influencers www. Please, certain male celebrities obsessed with fitness and have turned into bullfrogs, come to NS to learn some lessons, okay?]
16L: [But those first public performance candid videos posted in the NS discussion group seem really okay? There are many bare-faced handsome guys, and the atmosphere is good too, fans were shouting really loudly.]
17L: [Can something shot with a phone in landscape mode be the same? ..]
18L: [You said it yourself, those are fans too…(。]
19L: [Stop trying to whitewash it, the fact is, the most handsome in the offline candids are still Que, Qi, Wen. They’re not even on the same layer as the others.]
20L(OP): [How did the topic get so off-track while chatting? The first public performance is about to start.
Given the program team’s confidentiality requirements, filming on-site is not possible. This streamer will only give a general summary and not reveal competition results. More detailed analysis will be done in a reaction after the main episodes air.
Adding a disclaimer: This post is purely subjective evaluation, purely personal aesthetics, and purely hating on greasy men and macho men. Fan babies who get accidentally hurt can quickly slip away [kissy]
This streamer is purely sharp-reviewing and indiscriminately firing, feel free to take it personally. If you feel offended, don’t doubt it, it’s not your illusion, this streamer is talking about your bias [heart]]
21L: [The familiar taste is back!]
22L: [Sis, your mouth can fly bravely, we’ll always chase behind.]
23L: [Sis, you can say it [wiping tears], for you I can temporarily put aside my bias [chest out].]
………
189L (OP): [First is the host’s speech. Sister Miao is still very beautiful. Although not a professional host, her stage presence is steady, and she’s quite good at controlling the stage [praise].]
190L(OP): [Then there are the collaboration stages of the four mentors, divided into two groups. Chen Shiyu and Lin Qifeng sang “Wind and Wind” together. Yang Xu and Vinki sang and danced “Gun”.
These two stages were pretty good. Youth TV’s stage design is as powerful as always. NS indeed chose mentors based on skill.
The Chen-Lin group’s vocal tones matched well, but Teacher Lin’s live performance was still a bit unstable. However, for an old-timer focused on original work, we won’t demand too much~
The Yang-V group directly ignited the entire atmosphere of the venue. Whether they sang steadily or not aside, those from boy group backgrounds indeed have presence and stage charisma. VK’s rap was good, and the listening experience was very nice.
I hope it’s not peak at the start and the little brothers collapse, haha.
191L: [There were actually mentor live stages… Such a loss… I should have bought tickets from scalpers [tears].]
192L: [Yang Xu and VK collaborated??? Wow, their collaboration stage was the one I looked forward to the most!!! The song medley in the first main episode doesn’t count. This senior-junior pair together is pure king bomb. After their performance, is there really any room for the trainees to shine?]
………
358L (OP): [Sigh, it collapsed [sigh].]
359L(OP): [It’s hard to judge, I can only say the program team is too soft hearted. The initial stage was too heavily auto-tuned, raising this streamer’s expectations without limit… By the way, is the sound engineer’s liver still okay…
This live show and the initial stage in the main episode are really two totally different modes [facepalm bitter smile].]
360L: [??? Who is this talking about? [ears][ears]]
361L: [Who went on first? Other repos on the forum haven’t mentioned this yet.]
363L: [Heavy autotuning… Could it be that one…]
363L(OP): [The first public performance is a group PK competition. The first song was “Landscape”, Zhou Zilin’s group vs. He Quan’s group.
Both groups collapsed. Their pitch floated to the sky, like the atmosphere groups that wail like ghosts and howl like wolves at weddings and funerals. Their voices are louder than a suona, a bunch of big raw throats.
The key is that shouting and screaming still couldn’t hide their lack of breath support. So young and already this weak, what to do…
364L(OP): [Except for Zhou Zilin, no one’s level was online. Even Zhou Zilin’s performance was quite average, just mediocre and by-the-book. I remember he wasn’t like this before at music festivals?
Brother, did you just give up after entering a kids’ survival show? Being old and ordinary won’t make you popular again haha.
He Quan’s group… Which genius chose this guy as the group leader? His skill isn’t great, but he’s good at stealing the spotlight. Do you boy group survival shows also choose leaders by rolling dice like university group presentations? Then you’re really unlucky.]
364L: [Oh my God, “Landscape”… It’s difficult just from the song choice.]
365L: [Isn’t “Landscape” a sing-and-dance stage? I remember the original choreography is quite difficult. Did they change it to pure singing?]
366L: [If it’s full live mic for sing-and-dance, then an average performance is somewhat excusable, after all the difficulty is there.]
366L(OP): [Slightly live, maybe 40% live.]
367L: [I really don’t understand why Zhou Zilin came to a boy group survival show. It’s just weird, his style really doesn’t fit in.]
368L: [He’s still okay, compared to a certain Wu-someone who acts like a big shot with a small reputation…]
369L: [By the way… who is He Quan? Was this person in the first main episode?]
……
798L (OP): [The second song is “Goldfish in a Bowl”. This dance is a bit difficult, the choreographer is very daring.]
799L(OP): [Yan Qiao’s group vs. Cheng Shaozhi’s group, the peak showdown of dance positions… Is this right? You NS really know how to create topics. If there’s a fight to start, the officials will start it first, as if afraid the fans might rest [laughing-crying].]
800L: [Wow, this PK is very exciting, the program team is very exciting.]
801L: [I think the most pitiful people in this PK are their fans.]
802L: [No, I feel like these two fanbases enjoy arguing quite a lot. Praising Yan inevitably triggers scolding Cheng, scolding Yan triggers praise for Cheng. It’s like there are no Yan-Cheng dual fans in the world. What a fated pair of rivals.]
803L(OP): [Yan Qiao really has skills. Men with long limbs indeed look good dancing.
His expression management is also pretty good. It’s quite difficult for a man to throw a non-greasy wink, but he gives a feeling of “he knows he’s handsome, but doesn’t put on airs at all, instead actively flirting with you”. It feels like he’s good at charming fans [stroking chin].]
804L(OP): [I have no objection to this one being group leader, but his teammates really did drag him down.
You can see Yan Qiao deliberately slowed down and reduced his strength to match the group’s uniformity. He has good EQ, so he’s probably popular.]
805L: [YQ’s body proportions are indeed amazing. Just standing there gives off the aura of a main dancer.]
806L: [I don’t know about popularity, but his temperament is really special.]
807L: [Yan Qiao’s looks and temperament have the charming bad boy vibe, a bit like early Hong Kong male stars, with a hint of wickedness and coolness.]
808L: [There’s no substitute for his type of idol so far. His features aren’t outstanding individually, but combined they are very flirtatious. I want to be his dream girl too.]
809L: [So is Illustrated Encyclopedia sis’s new bias Yan Qiao?]
810L: [I suspect so too… I feel like sis came back after a year’s disappearance with a softer heart, her mouth isn’t as poisonous anymore.]
811L: [Here we go again, whenever there’s praise, people guess fan affiliation. Our Illustrated Encyclopedia sis is clearly a hate blogger, equally spreading hatred to every idol.]
812L(OP): [Now about Cheng Shaozhi’s group. This one’s dance foundation is strong. The artistry of his dancing is actually higher than Yan Qiao’s, and his limbs are very beautiful. It’s just that his aloof, too-highbrow energy is too much, it’s very disconnected from his teammates’ style.
I feel like this boy is completely immersed in his own art, oblivious to heaven and earth…
Modern dance is very picky about its audience. To be direct, it’s very niche, very un-boy-group. I still suggest he changes. If he doesn’t change, he shouldn’t debut. Giving the killing part to him is really wasteful.]
813L: [Sis, you are really my mouthpiece!!
Who understands?! Every time I comment that Cheng Shaozhi isn’t suitable for boy groups, I get chased and cursed at by fans and labeled as a Yan fan. I’m so wronged, I’m at most just a show fan?!]
814L: [Actually, both of them dance very well, it’s just a question of whether the style is suitable or not. Undoubtedly, Yan Qiao trained for seven years at BKL, so he is the first choice for a boy group main dancer. It’s quite difficult for Cheng Shaozhi to change his style. Those who have studied dance know how big the gap is between modern dance and hiphop, completely two different worlds…]
815L: [Wuu, our little Cheng is working hard to change, give him some time [big cry].]
816L: [Modern dance is much more advanced than hiphop. If Cheng Shaozhi can’t debut, he can still join a dance troupe. If Yan Qiao gets eliminated, he can only become a street dance teacher.]
817L: [Help… There’s a dog mixed into the thread. I knew it, Illustrated Encyclopedia sis, if you do real-time repos, you’ll definitely get hacked by fans.]
818L: [??? Did street dance teachers offend you? Don’t you know how profitable dance studios are these days?]
819L: [So, can someone reveal who won between these two groups?]
820L: [It must be Yan Qiao. If it’s not Yan Qiao, I’ll eat my keyboard upside down.]
……….
On stage, Yan Qiao and Cheng Shaozhi had just finished their performances. They stood on either side of the host, over ten young boys panting as they passed the microphone around for self-introductions.
Meanwhile, in the backstage lounge, the teams of Wen Xinyi and Wu Qichang, who were preparing to go on stage next, were confirming with the program staff that their earphones and makeup were correct.
And those who had already performed, like Zhou Zilin and others, were relaxed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. They each sat on the sofas in the back row, eating snacks and watching the show.
Thanks to the sponsor dad, these poor kids who had been deprived for half a month were finally allowed to eat some flavorful food. Even ordinary potato chips were eaten with relish.
Quentin curled up in the sofa at the corner of the front row. Hearing the continuous crunching sounds behind him, he felt a bit tempted.
But he couldn’t eat these things before officially going on stage to sing, otherwise it would make his throat hoarse.
So he could only regretfully shift his attention, trying to focus on watching the public performance stage displayed on the LCD screen.
As he watched, he suddenly felt his eyes were a bit sore.
Quentin subconsciously raised his hand to rub them, but halfway up, he suddenly remembered he still had the clown’s heavy makeup on his face. If he rubbed it carelessly, the entire makeup’s big screen effect would be ruined.
He had to put his hand down, constantly blinking and trying to force away the dryness in his eyes.
“…Quentin?”
Fang Xu, who was sitting beside him, noticed his actions and frowned as he looked over: “What’s wrong with your eyes? The rims are a bit red. Are you allergic to the makeup?”
Quentin closed his eyes, his eyelashes distinct against his lower eyelids, and shook his head: “It’s nothing, I probably didn’t rest well last night.”
He didn’t think it was a makeup issue. He assumed it was due to too little sleep these past two days, working overtime and staying up late to arrange the stage, as if he had returned to the time in his past life when he stayed up all night writing songs.
The makeup on his face was carefully drawn by the makeup artist using metallic pigments. The pigments had high color saturation, only needing a thin layer for the colors to be vivid and eye-catching. The presence on the face wasn’t strong either, so in theory, it shouldn’t affect his eyes. Quentin didn’t remember having any allergies.
Fang Xu observed silently for a moment: “……Did the pigment get into your eyes?”
Quentin: “Probably, not?”
Cui Yan, who was sitting on Quentin’s other side, heard their conversation and leaned over: “How about you stop using your eyes for now? Lean on me and sleep for a while, and I’ll wake you up when it’s almost our turn to go on stage.”
The boy’s eyes were somewhat round, his pupils black and bright. When he focused on someone, he looked especially earnest, the concern in his eyes pure and straightforward.
He and Quentin, who had turned to look over, locked eyes.
A few seconds later, the boy squinted his eyes, tilted his head back and yawned, saying casually:
“….Okay.”
Meanwhile, on the other side, Fang Xu watched helplessly as Quentin tilted his head, closed his eyes, and leaned on Cui Yan’s shoulder.
The fluffy head didn’t take up much area on the broad shoulder, with plenty of room to move; he seemed to be lying quite comfortably.
Fang Xu took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and was about to force himself to look away.
But then he saw Quentin suddenly sit up straight, his eyes still half-open and half-closed, muttering: “No good… it’s a bit hard.”
Fang Xu blurted out: “I’m not hard, how about leaning on me?”
“Pfft.”
Cui Yan couldn’t hold back a laugh. He reached around from behind Quentin’s neck and pressed Fang Xu’s shoulder twice: “You’re so skinny you’re just bones, and you’re not hard?”
Fang Xu lifted his eyes and looked at him with a sinister glint in his eyes: “…”
Being thick-skinned, Cui Yan didn’t feel it at all. Instead, he looked at Quentin, tilted his head in thought for two seconds, moved the pillow on his lap away, and said: “How about you lie here? This position should be more comfortable too.”
As he spoke, he patted his thigh, the palm making a thumping sound against the muscle.
Quentin, with drooping eyelids, glanced at it briefly.
‘It looks…quite soft?’
Once sleepiness set in, his entire brain felt like it was soaked in paste, completely unable to think normally.
He didn’t even bother to reply verbally. He tilted his upper body and slumped to the side like a free fall.
Cui Yan instinctively reached out to catch him, preventing the person with closed eyes from rolling onto the floor.
At this moment, Lu Kui, who was chatting in the back row, saw this scene unintentionally. His throat choked, and he instantly forgot what he wanted to say.
He was so shocked his jaw almost dropped.
Wait… no, what did he see?!
Lap pillow! It’s a lap pillow, right?!
……You can even sell it like this?!
The boy’s face showed a horrified expression as if a new world had opened up for him, as if a train was rumbling through his mind.
He wanted to escape but couldn’t, and even felt a bit curious…
Lu Kui swallowed hard, his eyes nailed in the direction of the front row corner, staring at the picture of serene tranquility…Cui Yan was even smiling and patting Quentin’s head!
He thought in a daze, ‘Ah… They’re really good at this.’
