DYUTVOBGA Chapter 79

The broadcast of “Dorm Life” indeed generated the level of heat on forums that satisfied the production team.

At the same time, audience members who had successfully won tickets for the second performance had already boarded flights to Yanhai City. Local fans who didn’t get tickets also organized support activities, planning to meet at the entrance of the performance venue to wave flags, hold banners, and set up flower walls.

This time the venue for the performance changed. The production team moved to a larger, more spacious recording studio near the Third Ring Road, with the Youth TV headquarters providing better stage design and injecting larger investments.

The number of tickets also increased from 500 to 1000. Although it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the constantly climbing viewer numbers, it was still a happy development.

Despite lacking company support, under the guidance of several core fans and the system, Quentin’s fan support association progressed from establishment to trial operation, and then to normally organizing activities, all in less than a month.

During the first public performance, due to insufficient manpower and lack of influence, the planning scope of the fan club was still limited to online activities.

However, for this performance, after multiple meetings and discussions, overnight planning, and mobilizing fans for crowdfunding, they finally had the resources to take the first step in offline performance support.

Fans living locally in Yanhai City scouted the area around the performance venue in advance, taking photos of the surrounding streets and situation and posting them in the planning group.

Across the street from the main entrance of the venue was a green, grassy riverside park. Turning left was a residential community less than five years old, and turning right were public facilities like a kindergarten, science museum, and water park.

Based on analysis and suggestions from fans with relevant professional expertise, the fan y decided that, in addition to common support items like flower walls, hand banners, large flags, and life-size standees, they would also rent an ice cream truck.

They would use the perk of free ice cream to attract parents and children playing in the park to vote for Quentin, while also rewarding the fans who had traveled long distances to get there.

Thus, the day before the performance, several young girls placed the newly decorated and painted ice cream truck in a corner of the park square. Raw materials and various fan merchandise were all checked and placed inside the truck.

The girls were exhausted and sweating from their journey. While testing the ice cream machine, each got two cones of different flavors. They sat on the ground lazily, eating while typing rapidly in the support group chat.

[Ice Cream Truck – Lala]: Ice cream truck is in position (^^ゞ Finally got to eat delicious ice cream!!

[Ice Cream Truck- No Pants]: Sweet vanilla and matcha [photo.jpg]×5

[Ice Cream Truck- Sisi]: The park has really high foot traffic. Kids from the nearby kindergarten just got out of school. So many kids wanted to buy ice cream on the drive over 😀 I have a feeling tomorrow will be busy.

[Flower Wall- Cinderella]: Thank you for the hard work, babies [hug]. Our custom flower wall is scheduled to be delivered to the main entrance tomorrow morning around 7 or 8 AM. I communicated with the venue person in charge. The second pillar to the left of the entrance is the spot designated for our flower wall~

[Flower Wall- Cola Needs Ice]: If any babies in the group arrive early, you can go guard the spot. I put up a sign there, so no one should take it.

[Large Flag- Yaoyao 0]: Let’s all gather in front of the flower wall at 9 AM! We’ll take group photos together and document our first large-scale offline support!

[Photography- Cute Ginger]: ok~ Photography is ready anytime!

[Flower Wall- Cinderella]: After the performance ends and packing everything up, let’s all go eat nearby. I’ll treat everyone to hotpot (??*)

“Time passes so fast. We’ll see Quentin tomorrow.”

The girl sitting next to the ice cream truck gazed at the distant sunset and couldn’t help but sigh.”I wonder how Quentin will react when he sees our support… Hmm… He’ll probably be surprised, right?”

“Whether he’s surprised or not, as long as our feelings reach him, letting him know that now there are many, many people who like him, that’s enough.”

Lala laughed.”And to be honest, all our plans are to increase fan cohesion and attract more casual viewers into the fandom. If we really want to know Quentin’s reaction, we’ll have to wait for events like fan meetings or signings in the future, to give him gifts face-to-face.”

Sisi propped her chin on her hand, nodding seriously. “Yeah, you’re right. Anyway, we didn’t get tickets this time. Let’s just do our assigned tasks for the fan club well, and make the ice cream truck a success.”

“We’re all tired as dogs. The last time I was this tired was when I ran the 800-meter dash. Amitabha Buddha, Bodhisattva, please bless us, tomorrow must go smoothly and successfully.”

After finishing her prayer with clasped hands, “No Pants” muttered, “I only got to the hotel at dawn, slept for five hours, then started working on the ice cream truck… I haven’t even had time to watch the latest episode of ‘Dorm Life’… You two probably haven’t watched it either, right?”

Lala touched the tip of her nose. “I didn’t watch the full episode, but I browsed Quentin’s cut.”

“No Pants” looked shocked. “Holy crap, you had time to watch cuts? You, you thick-browed, big-eyed girl, you actually slacked off behind our backs!”

Lala: “I…Just… I just watched a little bit.”

“Then tell us,what was in the cut? I saw forums discussing some cp.” “No Pants” pouted unhappily. “It’s probably other trainees’ fans forcibly pairing Quentin up again. A bunch of nobodies who love to piggyback on his popularity. The aggressiveness of us solo fans still isn’t strong enough.”

Sisi whispered, “It’s a boy group, cp stuff is unavoidable, especially in a survival show. Right now, we don’t have the energy to bother with these small things. These cp fans are a mix of real and fake, it’s easy to make accidental kills, and then we’d be the ones getting scolded.”

“No Pants” snorted, “I know, I wasn’t planning to argue with them anyway.”

Lala sighed. “It’s all because our Quentin’s charm is too strong. The popular cp others beg for, Quentin gets a new one every week. The key is that the production team is also riding this wave of popularity… Pants, if you go back and watch this episode of ‘Dorm Life,’ remember to avoid the online forum discussions. The editing is completely cp-brained, they’ve gone crazy for selling boys’ love.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

Sisi couldn’t help but refute. “Quentin was super handsome this episode, like a walking human aphrodisiac. The rainbow farts overwhelmed those comments shipping cp. The whole screen was just ‘ahhhh.’ You’ll definitely regret it if you don’t watch!”

“No Pants” turned her head slowly, sending a death glare. “Heh heh, looks like the slacker isn’t just Lala. Someone quietly finished the whole episode without a word, and even knows what the barrages were.”

Sisi:”…qaq.”

*

The next day, the sun was bright on the official performance day, without a cloud in the sky.

Trucks from wedding design companies came and went. Whether it was the fan club mobilizing fans for crowdfunding, or the wealthy female fans, everyone unleashed the magic of money for this performance.

Colorful flower walls, banners, balloons, and standees decorated the square in front of the performance venue with utmost extravagance.

Fans holding flags had serious expressions, standing by the roadside under the sun and vigorously waving 10 kg heavy flags. Fans in mascot costumes swayed their heads and made funny moves, both acting cute and cheering for their favorite pick.

With over three hours left until the trainee bus arrived at the venue, the square was already bustling beyond belief.

Quentin’s fan club rolled out the ice cream truck. Wen Xinyi’s fan club set up a fruit tea stall. Qi Yang’s fan club distributed handmade wool felt online. Yan Qiao’s fan club set up a stall right there making pancakes…

No one knew who started this trend, but it had turned the support site into a snack street.

At first, fans would pay attention to whose business was best, and whose line was longest. Later, they were so busy they only wished others weren’t so uncompetitive and wondered why they didn’t set up more stalls to share the customers. How could just their few stalls handle it all!

“Hey, Sisi, is that our flower wall?”
Lala, who was busy adding milk to the ice cream machine, looked up unintentionally and noticed a snow-white truck decorated with circles of roses parked across the street.

Staff getting off the truck were unloading and assembling methodically, and dark green vines and flowers were piled into a small hill near the pillars.

Sisi glanced over. “It should be. I remember Cinderella mentioned that company in the group.”

“No Pants”, who hadn’t paid much attention to group messages before, peeked out. On seeing the logo on the truck, her eyes widened in surprise. “‘Chuang Jiyuan (Create an Era)? Isn’t that the very expensive high-end wedding design company?”

Her tone was incredulous. “I remember they only take orders for celebrity weddings, birthday parties, honeymoon islands, that kind of thing. The starting price is like a hundred thousand. Our fan crowdfunding wasn’t that exaggerated, right?”

“Pants, how long has it been since you went online?”

Lala smiled helplessly.”Of course, regular fans alone couldn’t raise that much money. It’s mainly the power of the wealthy fans. QQ-sugar alone contributed 500,000. Apparently, she originally wanted to give more, but our group leader stopped her. After all, Quentin hasn’t debuted yet, making it too luxurious isn’t good either.”

“Five hundred thousand…” “No Pants” was dumbfounded. “My tongdan (fellow fan of the same idol) is that outrageously wealthy?”

She couldn’t curb her curiosity, eagerly craning her neck. “What flower wall is that expensive? When will our ice cream sell out? I still want to go take pictures.”

Sisi smiled and handed a newly made ice cream to a child waiting outside the truck before turning to comfort her. “Oh, soon, soon. Don’t worry.”

While it was hectic and busy at the snack street, the support flower wall at the entrance was quickly assembled by the skilled staff of the Chuang Jiyuan company.

The support color was a topic the fan club had seriously discussed. Some thought they should choose the light green of Quentin’s eyes, but others felt dark green was better.

Because Quentin’s eyes would change from a calm, watery light green to a deep, serene dark green when his emotions intensified or under changing stage lights. Most fans firmly believed the mysterious, alluring dark green was Quentin’s essence, as unfathomable as a forest nurturing all living things.

Thus, the support flower wall for this performance was also designed in a dark green tropical rainforest theme.

After consultation with the fans, the designer finally used special materials like gel and foil to create shimmering streams. Behind the layered vines were curling mist and snow-covered valleys.

The inspiration for the snowy mountains came from Quentin’s initial stage performance with the original song “La liberté”, while the vines and forest were derived from those heart-stirring eyes in the theme song “next!next!” MV.

Of course, the 100,000 yuan wasn’t wasted. Green peonies with pearlescent texture, evenly spray-dyed emerald green Ecuadorian roses, jadeite orchids bred from wild species, bell-shaped Japanese Lily of the Valley…

It was a dazzling spectacle of lush blooms, as if all the green-toned flowers in the world had been gathered here.

Even the green leaves complementing the flowers were also worth a lot.

Under the designer’s skillful hands, New Zealand ferns, Dutch Monstera deliciosa, black ebony branches, and other plants were gradually formed into a wild and stunning rainforest landscape.

This scene, like a fairyland, strongly resembled the magical forest that nurtures elves in Western fantasy legends. Among clusters of white crystals growing from holy light, several photos were placed.

Without a doubt, they were all Quentin’s iconic photos that broke out of the fandom and went viral.

From the initial stage, the solo dancer standing before the mic stand, wearing a purple rose shirt, arms spread wide;
The succubus-like boy in a pure black robe with his arms crossed and leaning against the door frame; the 17-year-old trainee in a white shirt and red pants tracksuit, brimming with youthful energy and vitality;
The young master from a magic academy in the MV, wearing a suit and long robe, stepping through a space-time door into the human world;
And, fan-drawn art from the yet to be broadcast first performance…the wealthy, arrogant, and willful Jester.

……

“Fuck, whose flower wall is that? Are the flowers on it real?”

“Whose family is this outrageously wealthy)? It’s too exaggerated…”

“That’s Quentin on the photos, right? If it’s Quentin, then it’s not strange.”

“It’s really beautiful. Can non-fans take check-in photos together? Wuuu.”

Discussions like these continued incessantly. The fan club members standing in front of the flower wall listened, growing happier and prouder. The time and effort spent on the support activities were instantly satisfied.

Even fans who didn’t participate in planning the activities couldn’t help but feel proud of their own fan club.

…Heh heh, my tongdan (fellow fans) are super cool and amazing! Fans resemble their idols, don’t you understand?

The time for the official start of the performance drew closer, and the black and gold bus representing “NS” was already on its way.

Fans at the “snack street” stopped their work and, together with other fans, crowded by the roadside, eagerly awaiting the bus’s arrival.

As for the trainees on the bus, nervously reviewing lyrics and choreography, they had no idea how much the support for the second performance would differ from the first.

The two weeks brought more than just the expansion from 500 to 1000 people.

“Next Stage” was no longer the somewhat popular niche program the trainees thought it was…

It had become the number one trending show online, breaking through to new circles and gradually reaching a wider audience, a gold-attracting stone.