The discussions stirred up online by the second public performance were even more heated than those for the first public performance.
The gimmick of “all-original compositions” easily piqued the interest of casual viewers, but for the on-site audience members who had won tickets, after watching the entire performance, there were truly not many songs that were memorable and actually sounded good.
This led to many audience members racking their brains to recall the details when editing their repo posts after the public performance ended, but they couldn’t remember the melodies of even ten songs, some were even forgotten immediately after hearing them.
Thus, the polarizing sharp critiques and rainbow farts targeting various trainees during the first public performance were resurfaced.
The performance that was praised by the on-site audience, almost elevated to divine status, was undoubtedly Quentin’s team’s “Fire Seed”. Most casual viewers praised it to the skies, even more brazenly than many fans.
Compared to the casual viewers’ blunt criticism and praise, the repo posts of Quentin’s fans could actually be considered objective.
Netizens looking for fun, ranked the stages of each team in the second public performance based on the content and popularity of the repo posts in the forums, and finally concluded:
T0: Quentin’s team
T1: Bi Xiao’s team, Zhou Zilin’s team
T2: Yan Jiao’s team, Fang Xu’s team, Cui Yan’s team
T3: Wen Xinyi’s team, Cheng Shaozhi’s team, Lu Kui’s team
T4: Qi Yang’s team
The netizen solemnly explained that the gap of strength of the T0 tier was very huge, unmatched this season, with combat power approximately four times that of the T1 tier (Note: For reference, see xxx’s repo post).
T1 tier teams had 2 to 3 members with original songwriting experience; their works and stage highlights were relatively memorable.
T2 tier basically had the team leader pulling the whole team like an aircraft carrier; the only member with original ability was most likely the team leader themselves. Apart from that, their stage was acceptable, with no obvious weaknesses in singing or dancing.
T3 tier had terrible original songs, with lyrics and the melody having a clear sense of being pieced together. The singing and dancing was inconsistent, with one aspect excellent and one aspect garbage.
As for T4, alas, let’s not talk about it.
This kind of ranking was recognized by the vast majority of viewers. Even Qi Yang’s fans only secretly wanted to elevate Qi Yang to T3.
One team occupying a single tier all by itself… This kind of treatment should be exclusively enjoyed by Quentin and his team!
But compared to the stage reports, which were subjective and filtered heavily by personal preference, what surprised netizens even more was:
Wow, Quentin can actually rap?!
And it seemed he rapped really well!!!
Wait, is that right? Is a creature like a “visual ace” real? Could this be the legendary “clearly could rely on their face to make a living, but just have to rely on talent”?
As “Next Stage” continued to air and the public performances progressed round by round, the audience already had a clear idea about the positions of popular contestants.
Before the second public performance, even though Quentin’s singing and dancing abilities were outstanding, most viewers still categorized him as a “visual.” The main reason was that the main show allocated limited parts for each trainee to showcase their skills, and ordinary viewers didn’t possess the ability to appreciate/assess like professionals.
Quentin’s singing and dancing were indeed strong, and he did get the highest score in the theme song assessment, but that didn’t mean he was the strongest in “Next Stage”…at least in the eyes of ordinary viewers.
The show’s editing was guiding. To speed up the audience’s recognition of the trainees, the editing team deliberately slapped labels on popular contestants.
For example, Yan Jiao and Cheng Shaozhi were the “two main dancers,” so viewers would think they were the top 1 and 2 in dance within “Next Stage.”
For example, Xue Mingzhu showcased exquisite and outstanding rap skills in the initial stage, crushing any other trainee’s rap performance, so viewers naturally saw him as “Next Stage’s” main rapper.
Another example, Wen Xinyi was the officially designated “male god main vocal” even before the show started, with the “Spring Festival Gala video” and Xinda Media backing him. Even though the production team repeatedly compared Wu Qichang to him, he was still the audience’s recognized main vocal.
As for Quentin, honestly, his initial stage had a high number of view counts outside the circle, and his performance in the theme song focus cam and MV was also stunning, but none of these made his face go viral.
A boy group only has so many positions, and with so many popular contestants, there definitely aren’t enough positions to go around. In the eyes of casual viewers, Quentin firmly occupying the visual title was already very reasonable.
But it was different in the eyes of fans.
Quentin is obviously so strong, why does the production team always focus on his face?!
Okay, okay, we know you’re all obsessed with looks, we know your trainees all love our QT’s face, but can’t you, the production team, be fair and just? If only you remain objective and also showcased Quentin’s strength!
Stop hyping that so-and-so/what’s-it-called cp all day long, making it seem like the only things Quentin is known for are his cp and his face. You are editing such a talented and skilled performer like this, it’s infuriating!
The key was, every time they told outsiders that Quentin was strong/his singing was good/his dancing was beautiful/his stage went viral, the fans of some other trainees would accuse them of putting others down to elevate their own favorite, and then word would spread that Quentin’s fans were shameless, liked to ky (making inappropriate comments), their hearts were higher than the sky, and they wanted to snatch everything.
Pah!
Pah!
Okay, they admitted, as the fan base grew larger, there were always immature little fans who wanted everything, tended to invite hate, and get out of control…
But, taking a step back, wasn’t what they said the truth?
In the fans’ eyes, Quentin’s face and skills were both uniquely strong, other ordinary people didn’t even have the qualification to smell his exhaust fumes.
The more other trainees’ fans collectively targeted them, the more arrogant they became.
Not only was Quentin strong, he also worked hard in the practice room from morning till late, and did morning runs and workouts without fail. Why should they be restricted even in just praising him?
Some people love to form cliques? Let them. Fierce beasts always walk alone, cattle and sheep herd together. Anyway, they wouldn’t hold back and downplay Quentin’s abilities for the sake of a false peace of “you’re good, I’m good, everyone’s good.”
Therefore, after the second public performance ended, as the news that Quentin rapped well spread, the little butterflies hopped around even more joyfully.
Hahahaha, I’m not fighting with you over whatever bullshit position anymore! Singing, dancing, rapping…this all-round talent says it all! Okay!
Hmph hmph hmph, my idol is a visual ace~ Who dares to criticize? Come fight!!
Other fans: “…”
Heh, the main episode hasn’t even aired yet, here they go again celebrating early. Aren’t you afraid of getting your face slapped?
While the fandom was in chaos, the hashtag #QuentinVisualAce# briefly surged to the top of the overall hot search list and maintained its position in the top three of the entertainment hot search list for nearly a whole day.
In addition, official hashtags like #”Next Stage” Second Public Performance Spectacle#, #How Amazing Are the First Boy Group Survival Show Public Performance Support Events#, #A Roundup of “NS” Fans’ Viral Support Activities# also repeatedly hung on the hot search lists.
Overall, the positive feedback for this second public performance far outweighed the negative public opinion. Compared to the large-scale viral “flop scene” and “fighting for center” in the first public performance, the second public performance could be described as calm winds and still waves. Everything was normal, seemingly with no one stirring up trouble.
So even though Quentin once again gained massive attention this time, the fans of Wen and Qi, who considered themselves mutually opposed to Quentin, could still maintain a stable mindset.
As long as my idol has no black material, everything is fine to discuss…
However, the incident with Qi Yang and his sasaeng fan still got out. After all, there were many people openly recording at the scene back then. It was impossible for everyone to just record and not post.
Wei Man accidentally came across a discussion post by Qi Yang’s fans about the sasaeng fan and asked curiously: “Fanfan, what’s going on with your brother’s sasaeng fan? I saw someone on the forum say that this person refuses to change their ways despite repeated admonition, and is always pestering your brother.”
“I don’t know either… My brother never tells me about these things. I didn’t even know he had sasaeng fans before.”
Mo Fan mumbled, looking down at the forum video. She paused it, carefully zoomed in to observe, and frowned: “These videos are all too blurry, I can’t see what this person looks like at all. How does the comment section know which sasaeng fan this is?”
“I know about this. Apparently, it’s because this person always appears dressed in the same way, always in long straight hair, a sailor uniform, and Mary Jane shoes. She also never cuts her bangs, and always wears a mask and scarf.”
Wei Man finished reading the entire post and added: “Your brother’s fans have all seen this person’s photo in the fan club, or even if they haven’t seen the photo, they remember the descriptive terms the fan club uses when someone is blacklisted, and it all matches.”
Although Qi Yang was a serious actor in the entertainment industry, Mo Fan never pursued stars.
Her aesthetic standards had been spoiled by herself and her own brother; ordinary celebrities couldn’t catch her eye, so she was completely ignorant of common knowledge in fandoms.
Sasaeng fans, in her view, were just fans with excessive behavior. She had never genuinely understood the various actions of sasaeng fans, so naturally, she didn’t know how abnormal this group could be.
“Then she should be quite young. Even though her face isn’t clear, this outfit is quite common; it looks a lot like my high school uniform.”
Mo Fan replied casually. She exited the forum and, for the nth time, admired her phone’s photo album: “Hehe~~ This time we really didn’t go for nothing. I hope the third public performance is also held near the science and technology museum, so we can walk over again to join the fun.”
The venue of the second public performance was close to Yanhai University. The three of them in the dorm hadn’t won tickets, but they still answered the fan club’s call, bringing gifts and hand banners to the offline event to see the excitement.
Mainly, they wanted to see the real-life version of Quentin. Everyone online said he was a hundred times more handsome than in the photos…who knew how much water content was in that hundred times.
Of course, after seeing him, even if the Heavenly King came, they would firmly say:
Quentin is one! thousand! times! more handsome than his photos!
Mo Fan leaned back in her chair, her left hand propping her chin, her right hand leisurely swiping through her phone screen. She sighed: “Looking carefully, I actually took over three hundred photos of Quentin. It’s just that too many angles are repetitive, Quentin in the videos is still better looking… How could someone in the world look like this…”
Wei Man glanced at her infatuated expression and couldn’t help but close her eyes and sigh.
Ever since yesterday’s public performance ended, Mo Fan had been raving about how handsome Quentin was, how good-looking Quentin was, Quentin’s divine face… Wei Man’s ears were getting calloused from hearing it. Tsk tsk, who would have thought that an aloof beauty like Mo Fan, who usually showed no interest in men, was also such an appearance dog (means someone obsessed with looks)?
In the past, Wei Man thought Mo Fan would spend her whole life with her 2D husband and that group of BJD dolls. As for now… Mo Fan’s aesthetic threshold had been raised once again by Quentin; now getting out of singlehood seemed even more distant.
Thinking about their three-person dorm room, Mi Tong and Mo Fan were both pure appearance-focused, leaving only her, Wei Man, the sole surviving sprout who was different.
It was true she really liked Quentin’s face, but she wasn’t that shallow! Even if Quentin was not this handsome, she would still like him!
Quentin’s charisma, his stage presence, his overwhelming talent… and so on, these were the things that truly made Wei Man’s heart stir.
So, she was also the most annoyed and aggrieved among the three of them about not winning tickets; she really, really wanted to see Quentin’s offline stage ah QAQ
Mi Tong noticed Wei Man’s listless appearance, smiled and comforted her: “Alright, there’s still the third public performance and finals. We have chances.”
As she spoke, she suddenly remembered something: “By the way, I remember we don’t have class on Thursday afternoon. I saw someone forward in the group chat that Lulin Ancient Town has a Halloween carnival from October 23rd to 31st, and student tickets are 50% off. Do we want to go play?”
Wei Man responded weakly: “Sure…”
Mo Fan, who was focused on scrolling through videos, answered without looking up: “I’m fine with anything.”
Mi Tong: “OK, then I’ll book the tickets in advance.”
*
The third day after the second public performance was Sunday, once again the time for the “Next Stage” main episode to air.
Judging from last week’s preview, the content of the fourth main episode was the first public performance stages of the remaining six teams, as well as the first ranking announcement scene.
The first four teams were “Lu Kui vs. Qiao Xue” and “Huo Donghua vs. Wei Bowen.” These four team leaders weren’t exactly hot topic figures, their stage performances weren’t particularly outstanding, and no major drama occurred during their rehearsal process either.
Clearly, the explosive points of this episode were all focused on the last two teams to take the stage, namely “Qi Yang vs. Quentin.”
Following the same order as the first public performance, the team going on stage first was Qi Yang’s team. Before the stage began, the team formation and daily rehearsals were first presented to the audience.
[I want to see how Brother Qi, as team leader, got his center position snatched away [angry]]
[Even though I already knew Ah Yang got the hardest song this time, I still can’t help but shed tears for Ah Yang’s unlucky constitution TAT]
[Okay okay, Brother Qi’s teammates are these people, right? Who exactly is going to stir up trouble? [smile]]
They say fan filters are thick, never seeing their own idol’s shortcomings, always finding opportunities to forcefully praise no matter what embarrassment their brother causes…but is that really the truth?
Well, a small portion of fans are like that, but most fans have eyes; they’re just unwilling to admit it, that’s all.
For example, this episode clearly showed the fact that Qi Yang’s singing and dancing weren’t up to standard during the rehearsal process, but his fans would still view Wen Bingbin, who won over his teammates and openly took the center position, with hostility.
Fans didn’t believe Wen Bingbin snatched the center for the team’s benefit; they just felt this person was quite scheming. Out of a selfish desire, he used the opportunity to step on Qi Yang to climb up, both riding on the popularity and hogging camera time, and getting all the benefits.
Fans of popular contestants aren’t easy to deal with. If you dare reach out to snatch the center position, you better be prepared psychologically for a barrage of criticism, black materials getting dug up, and being subjected to sarcastic remarks.
Even though they weren’t exactly wronging Wen Bingbin…he did indeed choose Qi Yang’s team aiming for the center…from a bystander’s perspective, one would only think Qi Yang’s fans had no self-awareness, made trouble without cause, and Wen Bingbin suffered an unexpected disaster.
Marketing accounts also seized the opportunity. They cut videos to ride the trend, and simultaneously initiated a poll.
Poll Topic: [“Next Stage” program fans, who do you think deserved to be elected the team center?]
[Blue: Qi Yang]
[Red: Wen Bingbin]
They had mastered the skill of inciting fan circles to tear at each other and creating conflicts.
The noise and commotion on this side had just begun, and the segment of Quentin’s team that followed didn’t bring much peace either.
With the previous first public performance repo posts, Quentin’s fans originally had high expectations for this episode, each sitting in front of their computers in excellent moods, just waiting to enjoy Quentin’s stage performance.
As a result, behind that stunning stage, there had actually been such hateful things!
One moment the fans were complacent about Quentin’s popularity during the team formation segment and the harmonious atmosphere of the team’s cooperation, but not long after, they were slapping the table and standing up with rage, just wanting to curse in the streets.
Topic: [Shock, behind the entire team’s outstanding performance, it was actually your Ting single-handedly pulling the aircraft carrier!]
Content: [Which big unlucky fool is doing charity? Oh, turns out it’s my idol ah [heartbroken][heartbroken]]
1L: [Earlier I wanted to praise these teammates for being so obedient and doing whatever Quentin said, unlike other groups that were making a fuss over center and parts… As a result, later they slapped my face repeatedly. Seriously, how old are you all, treating the team leader as a nanny?!]
2L: [How did they so naturally push all the problems onto Quentin alone to shoulder? They’re just bullying my Quentin for being young and having a strong sense of responsibility? They might as well carve PUA on their foreheads and consider it done了 [eye roll]]
3L: [Your skills are not that great, but your moral blackmail is quite skillful, I’m talking about you, Liang Yao!]
4L: [Cui Yan, and Fang Xu… I really misjudged you two. How could you just stand by with a clear conscience?… I’m never extending my love to the people around Quentin anymore.]
5L: [Sigh, actually they did help too. They also accompanied Quentin in starting over from scratch; the choreography was their responsibility. But I’m still unhappy… I’m not sure if it’s the production team’s editing problem, making a perfectly good team leader seem like a lone hero. Just ask, which team’s leader works so hard!]
6L: [Um, passerby here, to be fair, this has a bit to do with Quentin’s leadership style too… Anyone who’s in a workplace knows that if one person handles the entire group’s proposal, it will only foster the team members’ laziness, and sooner or later, problems will arise.]
7L: [So you think Quentin deserves to be this tired?
It’s not like Quentin didn’t let them participate in the discussion. Whatever Quentin said, they just right right right. What, should Quentin be the tapeworm in their stomachs, teaching them step-by-step how to participate in group discussions?]
8L: [A team of giant infants. It’s really eight lifetimes of bad luck for my Quentin to end up as their team leader.]
…….
109L: [Umm… timidly saying something, if I were Quentin’s teammate, with the team leader having such a strong presence and being so much stronger than me, I might also just say right right right…
Because, I really feel that everything Quentin says is right qaq]
110L: [Upstairs +1. Their team’s initial plan was actually also very good. The problem wasn’t them, but the production team’s costumes and stage design. There was no prior coordination and communication.
Quentin is a great team leader, the teammates are also obedient, and the whole team worked very hard. No other group woke up at 5 a.m. and returned to the dorms at 11 p.m., even sleeping on the floor in the practice room…]
111L: [So the essence was a conflict between the team and the production team, but the editing guided it to seem like an internal team dispute. Blame the unreliable production team!]
112L: [Let’s leave everything else, but Liang so-and-so cannot be whitewashed. The team leader gave wholeheartedly, as a result, this guy shifted blame and started talking behind his back. Whoever meets this kind of person is unlucky.]
113L: [I only have one concern now: won’t Quentin have to be this tired from now on? [sigh]]
114L: [Me too… I feel that with Quentin’s popularity, he’ll inevitably be team leader from start to finish…
He was team leader for the second public performance too anyway, I don’t know what upsetting things happened during the rehearsals for the second public performance [melancholy]]
115L: [Speaking of which, don’t you think Quentin’s ability to take action is terrifyingly strong? Is this the legendary all-rounder in singing and dancing who also got into Yanhai University as a top student?]
116L: [It seems Quentin is already accustomed to working so hard. At such a young age…how does he always push himself like this? It’s so heartbreaking for us Mom fans. [tears]]
267L: [Ahem, sisters, don’t speculate so much. Quentin is working hard for his own career. If he weren’t this hardworking, then perhaps he wouldn’t have walked before us, nor would he be as outstanding as he is today. As fans, we just need to believe in him!]
268L: [As for whether it will be worrisome and tiring when Quentin is team leader, this mainly depends on whether the teammates are reliable. If there are black sheep holding him back, that’s when we fans show our power! [clenching fist]]
269L: [The person upstairs is right. QT is still young, naive, and inexperienced in the ways of the world. He trusts his teammates too much; a well-behaved kid who just finished the college entrance exam and hasn’t entered society yet is most easily deceived [sigh].
So we fans must be vigilant! If some scheming thing plays tricks, we must kill the chicken to warn the monkeys! We’ll curse until his whole family takes cover! We’ll even dig out his childhood black history of wetting the bed!
Let me see which stupid idiot still dares to play tricks on QT, let them see and experience our little butterflies’ combat power!]
270L: [To tell the truth, my only requirement for Quentin’s future teammates is…obedience, from the bottom of the heart obedience, it’s best if they treat Quentin’s words as an imperial edict :)]
271L: [As the saying goes, listen to the team leader, and you will prosper ^^]
272L: [Who understands, after watching the rehearsal process of every team, I realized that the trainee who possessed the best leadership ability was actually the youngest, Quentin. Career fans are so proud. [hands on hips]]
273L: [Not only does he have the best leadership ability, but he is also the one who cares about collective benefit the most, is the least selfish, and wholeheartedly devotes himself to the stage.The teams that had problems during rehearsal weren’t just Quentin’s team alone, but only they were brave enough to scrap everything and start over…]
274L: [Why is this main episode only airing today… I really want to tell Quentin in person that he’s really great, he is the most awesome, and he is the best little team leader TvT]
