DYUTVOBGA Chapter 76

After the meeting ended, several teammates stayed in the third-floor practice room, pondering over blank draft papers, while Quentin went downstairs with the plan to discuss with the production team.

He originally intended to go alone, but Xue Mingzhu proactively stood up and grabbed his wrist. “Let’s go, together.”

Quentin looked sideways at him. “I can go alone. It’s just to explain our team’s plan clearly.”

“Hey, it’s not the same.” Xue Mingzhu nudged Quentin toward the door with his shoulder, whispering in the boy’s ear, “Getting the production team to agree to all our things isn’t that easy. I went to them during the first performance rehearsals, and they wouldn’t let me change anything. Their reasons for refusal were very perfunctory.”

He reached out and flipped through the paper in Quentin’s hand, the corners of his mouth turning down. “Although the situation for the second performance is different from the first one back then, to be honest, our team’s plan is quite complex. It’s probably impossible to get them to follow it exactly as it is. If we both go, maybe we can fight for more resources. At the very least, the clothes we wear must be cool!”

Quentin actually hadn’t expected the production team to agree to everything either. People like them, with no background, no star power, and no works, were nothing but easy to manipulate in the director’s eyes.

And Quentin himself wasn’t skilled with smooth talk either. At most, he could clearly explain the pros and cons of the stage design; any other sweet-talking was beyond him.

This was normal. Despite this underage body housing a 25-year-old, successful adult soul, the truth was, this adult’s mouth had been stubborn since childhood.

If he had learned even a little of the art of flattery and smooth talk, he wouldn’t have offended so many people in his past life, and his reputation in the industry wouldn’t have fallen to that level.

Besides, 25 wasn’t exactly the age of maturity. Many people have lived for 25 years and still act like innocent, carefree children.

Some people are stubborn because they haven’t suffered hardship or been beaten down by society, but Quentin’s stubbornness was entirely a matter of personality.

He wasn’t a fool who didn’t understand social graces; he understood too well, which was why he couldn’t be bothered to fight with others.

Hmm, he only fought with himself.

Quentin thought for a moment and said, “Alright, let’s go together then.”

“Huh? Why do you sound so reluctant?”

Xue Mingzhu raised an eyebrow, letting go of Quentin’s wrist and slinging his arm over Quentin’s shoulder as usual. “I know you. If the production team rejects our plan, you’re probably just going to bury your head and redo everything yourself, right?”

His words were earnest, which didn’t match his fierce and unreliable face at all. “Quentin, we’re going to negotiate with the production team. Negotiation involves back-and-forth; you need thicker skin. Just state your requests boldly later, I’ve got your back!”

Quentin silently glanced at him again. “Just don’t start arguing with people.”

Xue Mingzhu: “…Tsk.”

The two mentally prepared themselves for a tug-of-war with the production team. They went downstairs into the director team’s workspace and handed the plan to the head director.

While the other party examined it carefully, Quentin went through each point clearly. Xue Mingzhu, standing beside him, was responsible for supplementing.

“Hmm…” The middle-aged man with a stubbled beard rubbed his chin, a satisfied expression appearing on his otherwise serious face. “I roughly understand.”

He took out his phone and snapped a few pictures, then handed the plan back to Quentin. “The concept is very complete, and the theme is full of positive energy. Very good.”

As he said this, he looked up at Quentin. “If you have time now, go talk to the costume, makeup, and props teams. See what needs you have for stage design and styling. If there are any problems, it’s better to resolve them early.”

Xue Mingzhu couldn’t help but press further: “So Director Wang, you agree?”

Director Wang nodded. “Mm.”

Young people can’t hide their feelings. Hearing the head director’s approval, his eyes immediately brightened. His delighted expression practically wrote the sentence “Ha, if the director has agreed, who dares disagree?” right on his face.

Seeing Xue Mingzhu eagerly preparing to find other staff to settle things, Director Wang picked up the warm tea on the table and slowly glanced at Quentin, who was being dragged along.

‘As expected, this kid was still as calm as ever. You can’t tell at all if he was happy or not. Should I call him steady or dull?’

The subsequent process went smoothly beyond words. There really weren’t any costumes in the base that met Quentin and Xue Mingzhu’s preferences. However, the head of the costume team immediately contacted headquarters, letting them have a video call directly with the people there to pick as they liked from a pile of clothes.

Xue Mingzhu thought it was because the director’s words were reliable, but Quentin could tell these staff members weren’t cooperating step-by-step just because of the director’s approval. They were sincerely willing to help.

Even the designer who had refused to modify the outfits for Quentin’s team during the first performance now proactively helped them pick accessories and demonstrated various styling options with enthusiasm.

Ultimately, the reason their attitudes flipped 180 degrees was probably because of Quentin’s outstanding performance on the recently concluded first public performance.

Good-looking people receive preferential treatment wherever they go, but only those with capability and talent earn genuine respect.

When Quentin proved his abilities and won the audience’s affection, his voice would no longer be ignored, and his suggestions wouldn’t be dismissed as the presumptuous trivial efforts of a naive newcomer.

To put it bluntly, the behind-the-scenes workers of the production team were just a group of wage workers doing their jobs. The object of their service was the entire program, not individual stars.

They didn’t have the fan filter for stars in their eyes. Anything that interfered with normal work and caused overtime would face their subconscious perfunctory rejection. Anyone who has worked a job knows that slacking off is practically human nature.

The production team was very disgusted with stars who tried to order them around, but they were quite tolerant of capable artists.

After all, who didn’t want their program to get better and better, right?

Rehearsals progressed smoothly. The second performance plan was finalized on Friday, and Saturday was the day Quentin planned to release his new song.

He had uploaded the song and MV in advance on the backend of the Light Music app, setting the release time for noon at twelve o’clock.

This song was the final pre-release single before the official album launch. Quentin chose “Lust” from the series of songs, representing lust among the seven deadly sins.

The reason for choosing this song was mainly because, in his past life, among the seven series songs, “Lust” had become an overnight sensation through short videos.

This song was practically the bgm for celebrity midnight edits and internet celebrity videos focused on looks or suggestive content. Its play count was nearly ten times higher than the others, frequently making it onto playlists like “100 English Songs Chinese People Must Listen To.”

Quentin didn’t know if such a path could be replicated in this world, but by comparison, this song was undoubtedly the most suitable to kick off the promotional campaign for the album release.

“Greed,” as the beginning of the adventurous story, set the stylistic tone for the entire album. “Lust” then continued the previous story, using its highly memorable melody to go viral among the listener base.

This arrangement was logical and seemed the optimal choice by any measure.

The system’s focus differed from Quentin’s. It only knew “Lust’s rating was higher than the previous songs, reaching an astonishing A+ after Quentin’s refined editing!

In its view, this song screamed “guaranteed hit” from start to finish. There was nothing to worry about at all.

It was also concerned about tomorrow’s broadcast of the third episode.

“Host, tomorrow is Sunday, the third episode is airing!” The system looked at Quentin, who was concentrating on composing music on the computer in the practice room, and subtly reminded, “Based on the progress of the first two episodes, the third episode should cover the first public performance.”

Quentin remained unmoved. “Mm, got it.”

The system muttered quietly: “But according to the order, your first public performance stage was the last one. It’ll probably be placed in the fourth episode by the production team… Calculating it this way, I don’t think you’ll have much screen time in the third episode.”

Quentin didn’t really care about how much screen time there was, but the system, which lived online all day long, couldn’t ignore it. Unconsciously, it had already become Quentin’s career fan, completely molded into Quentin’s image inside and out by the fandom.

At midnight the day after the first ranking announcement, a new round of voting began again.

According to the “NS” voting mechanism, a portion of the votes from the previous round would be carried over into the next round in the form of a percentage.

That meant the previously widened gaps would suddenly shrink, not to mention the minuscule difference in votes between Quentin and the competitors closely following him.

Seeing its host looking fully absorbed in songwriting, the system obediently shut up and silently crawled along the internet cable into forums, swiftly pinpointing and snatching up black posts attempting to stir trouble, then skillfully forwarding the links to discussion groups or fan chats.

Let them argue and curse; as for those who had to be reported, it just had to lift a finger and select “involving offensive language and damaging the harmonious online environment” as the reason.

Just as the system was diligently working, a marketing account post unexpectedly entered its data stream.

Title: [Shocking! Popular “NS” Contestant Zhong Qu Already Dropped Out, Nowhere to Be Found in Second Round Voting!]

Content: [Rumor has it that trainee Zhong Qu from BKL Entertainment was persuaded to drop out by the program team before the first performance even started. It wasn’t apparent from the screen time in the first two episodes or the normally conducted first round of voting, but the newly started second round of voting makes it very clear.

Zhong Qu, whose votes were steadily in the top ranks, has actually disappeared. What exactly happened to make the program team forcibly persuade a popular contestant from a major company to drop out? This editor is really curious~]

This post’s data was average, incomparable to the black posts the system kept an eye on. The reason it got retrieved was because someone in the post mentioned Quentin, seemingly a cp fan of Quentin and Zhong Qu.

It wasn’t strange. Nowadays, various camps wanted their favorites to form a cp with Quentin. Zhong Qu at least had spoken a couple of words with Quentin in the episodes. Many cp videos in the forums were purely forced pairings.

But the system still smelled a whiff of conspiracy. The moment it grew suspicious, its data stream automatically trawled the entire internet.

The final query revealed over 20 newly released posts in the last 24h about “Zhong Qu dropping out,” and almost every one mentioned Quentin. Oh, and half of them also mentioned Yan Qiao.

A definite conspiracy!

It crawled along the internet cables and finally locked onto a target: a studio specializing in connecting industry celebrities with marketing accounts and online water armies.

The one who actively contacted this studio was an account with no identity, no history, no followers. Of course, who was behind the puppet account couldn’t hide from the omnipotent system.

“Hmph, as expected, it’s Zhong Qu.” The system grumbled. “What does this scumbag want to do now?!”

Perhaps Zhong Qu was short on funds. The accounts he hired to post had few followers, and the content was just jumbling those same old sentences back and forth.

The system didn’t understand Zhong Qu’s intent. It told Quentin about these findings, and Quentin also didn’t know what Zhong Qu wanted to do, but the person had already dropped out, the progress bar was long settled, and presumably he couldn’t stir up much of a splash.

………

The next day at noon, EP03 was updated on time.

As the system said, this episode mainly covered the anonymous team leader selection and the performance stages of the first eight groups. Quentin had very few shots.

If one had to point out something special, it was probably Quentin’s popularity during the team formation segment, which exceeded viewers’ imagination. As a result, certain black fans who repeatedly tried to smear Quentin and pin the “royal” label on him have their faces slapped and lose their composure.

Conversely, Wen Xinyi, who performed in the first eight groups, faced setbacks again. The program team’s “malicious editing” ultimately came into play.

Quentin barely escaped due to the director’s momentary change of heart, but Wen Xinyi, who performed poorly in the first performance, was heavily targeted.

The editing logic for the performance episodes was: “Host introduction → Team takes the stage → Cut to team rehearsal process → Official stage performance → Vote solicitation & audience voting.”

In the footage of Wen Xinyi’s team rehearsal, the program team, to generate buzz, forcefully shaped Wen Xinyi into a weak, incompetent, indecisive, and easily bullied team leader.

The tension and internal conflicts within their team formed a sharp contrast with Wu Qichang’s team which was harmonious and cooperated well with each other. The final result from the PK between the two teams was predictable.

Leaving aside how enraged and frantic Wen Xinyi’s fans were, Quentin and Qi Yang, who had little roles in this episode, still steadily held the top two in votes. The original fourth place, Yan Qiao, successfully overtook Wen Xinyi due to his outstanding performance. Xue Mingzhu, who was deeply embroiled in rumor troubles, also led a group of teammates holding him back to victory with his rap skills, and his votes returned to the top ten.

Aside from that, the top ten rankings basically didn’t change. Just as the audience reports after the first performance said, the most outstanding performances among the first few groups were from Yan and Xue’s teams; the others were all mediocre and unremarkable.

Interestingly, after the third episode aired, the number of new black posts about Quentin significantly decreased.

But upon closer examination, it didn’t seem all that strange.

In the fiercely competitive survival show, the so-called “black fans” don’t necessarily dislike Quentin himself. Most were charging into battle for their own idol, disguised as casual viewers to pull down competitors blocking their idol’s rise to the top, that’s all.

And in the anonymous team leader selection session, whether it was the general audience or the fans of each contestant, everyone had to admit that the trainees of “NS” all seemed to really like Quentin.

Tsk.

Frustration aside, to tell the truth, most of the trainees’ fans were actually quite happy to see their favorites getting along well with Quentin.

Heh heh, the more interactions there were, the easier it would be for them to edit cp videos!

Now Quentin was the hot commodity everyone was clamoring for. Just how big the benefits of pairing up with him could be could be seen from Fang Xu’s ranking in the first round of eliminations.

Before the second episode of “Dorm Daily” aired, Fang Xu’s ranking was still outside the top twenty. He hadn’t made it onto the hot searches, had no real buzz, didn’t even have a sasaeng fan site or a fan club, and the newly created fan group’s activity level was quite average.

After all, his looks weren’t outstanding, he didn’t get much screen time in the main episodes, and aside from his balanced singing and dancing skills and his Class A title, the audience had no other impression of him.

However, in the second episode of “Dorm Daily,” just five minutes of footage sent Dorm 303 straight to the top of the hot search rankings. This led countless cp fans to discover Fang Xu’s charm, catapulting him into the top ten within the 24 hours before the first round of voting closed.

This sudden windfall really made people green with envy!

[I wonder what explosive content this week’s “Dorm Daily” will have]

[Don’t even think about it, with “NS” and its childish scale, at most you’ll get to hear the car’s exhaust fumes. Whose bathrobe photo still hasn’t had a high-definition version leaked to this day……]

[It’s a new week, will Quentin have a new cp? [Curious]]

[Definitely. With Quentin’s efficiency at attracting bees and butterflies, don’t underestimate those scheming men around him!]

[Sure enough, boys must pay attention to their safety outside [shivering]]

[Come on, come on, place your bets on a new cp pairing! I bet on Qi Yang. Among the top-ranked, only Qi Yang and Quentin don’t have a cp yet. The two handsome guys look great together just based on their faces, okay?]

[I feel like the maknae group(youngest members) of Liao Fei, Yang Siyi, and Quentin is also a good match. In the first performance, Liao Fei and Quentin were in the same team, so they definitely have more interactions.]

[Then why not ship Fang Xu, Cui Yan, and Quentin? At least Fang and Cui are from the same company and are quite familiar with each other. Liao Fei and Yang Siyi haven’t even spoken a few words, right?]

[I’m speechless, does it have to be three people?]

[3A and 303 are enough already. If you’re going to force pairings, you might as well just ship all Quentin [sweating emoji]]

[Everyone mocks Fang Xu for eating soft rice, but everyone wants to be the next Fang Xu.]

[Quentin is so handsome, the soft rice is so fragrant, only a fool wouldn’t eat it, right? _(:3 >∠)_]

[Hehe, when it comes to soft rice(being a kept man), of course whoever eats it gets to enjoy it :-P]