For this finals solo, Yan Qiao prepared a “Bamboo Hat Dance”.
Simply put, he integrated the bamboo hat adorned with strings of copper coins into the choreography. Although his face was partially obscured, this made it easier for the audience to focus on his dancing.
While covering the face might reduce exposure for an idol, it can also be an effective method of stage performance. An appropriate sense of mystery could actually deepen the audience’s curiosity about his appearance.
Moreover, when it came to expression management, quality mattered more than quantity.
In Yan Qiao’s design, this solo had two killing parts from beginning to end.
The first was when he pinched the brim of the hat and tossed it into the air, crouched down to execute a clean floor move, then reached out to catch it, put it back on precisely on the beat, and lifted his gaze for a slight glance at the camera.
The second was the transition part between the end of his solo dance and Quentin coming on stage.
The music, nearing its end, softened. The sound of the qin hidden beneath the main melody gradually became more prominent, like a sudden downpour in a forest, spreading through the applause with clear ding-ding sounds.
Standing at the center of the stage, Yan Qiao raised a hand to adjust his bamboo hat, turned sideways, and walked towards the edge of the stage. From a distance, it looked like he was preparing to exit. However, a small number of sharp-eyed audience members in the front row noticed the direction he was walking to seemed wrong.
“Huh? Is that the way to exit? That area is all seats.”
“If I remember correctly, the trainees all exited from the left before… Wait, is he reaching out his hand towards the audience?”
“Holy crap, don’t tell me there is also an audience interaction segment? That is over the top!”
The large screen camera moved to the faces of the front row audience before Yan Qiao did, making it look like an interactive segment from a concert where random fans were invited to sing along.
The girls who noticed themselves on the big screen waved to the camera either shyly or excitedly. As a result, the audience in the back rows of the venue and those watching the live stream also finally became aware of what seemed to be a new segment.
[??? There is this part too? Don’t mess around. I have been waiting for my bias all night. What are you trying to do by suddenly inserting this?]
[Adding interaction will make it exceed the time limit… the other trainees had a limited time for their solos.]
[How do you know it’s an interaction segment? The host has not even said anything, and you are already shouting. I’m speechless.]
Due to scheduling conflicts, most of the celebrity guests invited to attend the debut night live broadcast had not seen the trainees’ stage rehearsals.
He Shuyi, Ji Sheng, Inferno, Aurora, and others who had already finished their performances were sitting in their exclusive waiting rooms watching the live broadcast. Cameras were also running inside their waiting rooms, and the reactions of the senior male and female idols were also part of the content the production team planned for the live broadcast.
“If I remember correctly… the next person to go on stage should be Quentin?”
Ji Sheng had just finished watching the behind-the-scenes vlog his studio had edited and posted on the forum. After casually replying to a few comments in the thread, he looked up and saw the image of Yan Qiao walking towards the audience’s seating area.
He raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. As a fellow BKL signed artist, he knew it was highly unlikely that the “NS” production team would favor Yan Qiao.
Theoretically, not deliberately cutting his scenes to prevent him from gaining popularity was already considered good treatment. Getting special treatment like this, which was different from other trainees, was something that was too outrageous to even dream of.
As a veteran idol, Ji Sheng was naturally more experienced than the audience, and he quickly associated the sudden turn of events to Quentin, who was about to appear.
If such special treatment had to be given to someone, then who else could it be but the C-position with an overwhelming lead in votes?
Hearing his question, Ji Xu quickly responded: “Yes, it’s Quentin. He is the last one. All the other trainees have finished performing now.”
Coincidentally, this group of people in the waiting room were all from the same company.
Although one was a veteran boy group that had been left to fend for itself, one was a rising new boy group, and one was a survival show girl group that had been ignored and neglected, with no public appearances except for this debut night stage.
But coincidentally, they had all spent a lot of time in the company over the past year. There were always opportunities to run into each other in the practice rooms, recording studios, or the cafeteria.
However, compared to ECHO and Aurora, who were both idols in similar unfortunate situations, the seven members of Inferno, who had been trainees competing in the seventh generation group debut just a year ago, had fewer opportunities to run into them and chat. Even when they did, it was just a reserved group greeting, making it hard for the seniors to have a deep impression of them as individuals.
So Ji Sheng merely nodded politely towards Ji Xu: “Mm, understood.”
Then there was no follow-up.
[Xiao Ji finally talked to his idol, but unfortunately his idol has no impression of him [pitiful]]
[No way, didn’t they record “Cat and Mouse Game” together? Why does it feel like they are not even familiar with each other?]
[Recording one show does not mean they are close, okay. [awkward]]
[Ji Sheng and Quentin: ?]
[I suddenly remembered that all these people are from BKL. It feels like Ji Sheng’s attitude towards his juniors is very cold, especially compared to Quentin.]
[Don’t talk nonsense. Brother Ji is slow to warm up and likes to act cool. It’s normal for him to talk little.]
Zhang Fu did not know that the live broadcast camera had quietly split in half and cut to their waiting room.
She noticed the subtle disappointment in Ji Xu’s eyes and said, “Everyone has already finished their solo stages? I’ve actually been looking forward to Quentin’s solo. He has a lot of ideas. I discovered it when I was chatting with him backstage not long ago.”
Ji Xu turned his head upon hearing this and jokingly said, “Hey, I discovered it too. It was when we were recording ‘Cat and Mouse Game’ before. How can someone be so handsome and so smart? Sister, you don’t know, the first time I saw Quentin face to face at the hotel, I was instantly stunned!”
Zhang Fu did not think much and echoed his words: “Yeah, same for me. Well, maybe my situation was even more shocking than yours at the time.”
Ji Xu nodded in agreement: “I know. I saw the fan-edited video. You stood there for a while, just like in a movie.”
[See, even they think Quentin is handsome]
[What you are saying… Celebrities are people too. They have normal aesthetics, okay?]
[The fans of these two fight so fiercely. Who would have thought, your bias is praising his rival’s looks right in front of the camera]
[Can’t you understand polite talk? A little politeness, and you actually take it seriously. Heh.]
[Who is whose rival? Quentin and Ji Xu? How did that rivalry even start???]
[The fan-edited video… could it be CP fans? [shocked]]
[Since when does Ji Xu like to ship CPs? Did Jian Yu share it with him? Hahaha]
[That scene really did have a strong CP feel. QT was like Sleeping Beauty… hehe]
[Don’t mess around. Aren’t Zhang Fu and Quentin like siblings??? Pay attention to their identities before shipping CPs. They are idols, hey!]
The members of Aurora did not have many opportunities to interact with other artists in front of the camera, so they were not so cautious about the topics they conversed about. It was only when Ji Sheng heard them going off topic further and further, and unable to bear it, spoke up to change the subject.
“Look, is Yan Qiao trying to invite an audience member on stage?” he said, pointing at the television screen.
But on the screen, the young man dressed as a chivalrous wuxia swordsman stopped about two or three meters from the edge of the stage, lowered his head slightly, and raised his left hand slightly forward.
Due to the lighting and camera angle, Quentin, who was wearing a cloak, was completely blocked by the surrounding cameramen. From the audience’s perspective on the large screen, they would only think that Yan Qiao was signaling a lucky audience member to take his hand and come onto the stage.
A wave of boos erupted across the venue, the drawn-out sounds expressing everyone’s envy towards the audience in that area.
But the front row audience, whom everyone envied, were each more confused than the last.
The initial excitement of discovering that Yan Qiao was walking towards them gradually faded. The girls turned their heads left and right, looking around, curiously searching for the so-called lucky audience member, but only saw faces as confused as their own.
Strange, who was Yan Qiao looking at? What was the selection rule for this “lucky audience member”? Could it be an inside job arranged beforehand by the production team?
Thus, more and more audience members focused their attention in the direction where Yan Qiao’s hand was reached out. Then they looked at how he lowered his head. The more they observed, the more they felt his target was not in the audience at all.
This was ridiculous…why did it look like he was inviting a cameraman?!
At the same time, everyone in the waiting room narrowed their eyes, staring at the screen.
Zhang Fu whispered, “What is Yan Qiao doing? Is this part of the stage design?”
Ji Xu shook his head: “I don’t know. Listen, the music is changing…It feels like something is about to happen.”
Yan Qiao’s outstretched hand remained there for only two seconds. If there were audience members who understood music and listened carefully, they might have noticed that the qin sound in the accompaniment had quietly transformed into piano notes, and the sound of the xiao, which sounded like a mountain valley wind, was gradually replaced by a dizi. (That’s a Chinese flute/bamboo flute).
Within a few seconds, an ancient-style song with a jianghu background seamlessly switched to a modern ballad.
The young man raised his hand and pressed it against the brim of the bamboo hat, skillfully removing it. Every move was in time with the musical drumbeats, giving a pleasing sense of rhythm.
His face, always half-hidden by the bamboo hat, was finally fully exposed under the spotlight. Regarding his facial features, he was not the kind of stunningly handsome guy that shocks people at first glance, but there was an extremely captivating charm in his temperament that perfectly matched the audience’s imagination of a “martial arts hero.”
Amidst the exclamations of the audience, he bent his elbow, gathered strength, and flung the bamboo hat forward from his hand.
The string of copper coins traced a bright red arc. The camera followed the movement of the bamboo hat, and suddenly, a slender, fair hand rose up, perfectly intercepting the bamboo hat’s flight path.
With a soft thud, the brim of the hat hit the palm. Due to the inertia, a few of the spinning red threads wrapped around his fingers, and the copper coins hung down with a tinkling sound, swaying left and right like a pendulum.
Countless gazes immediately converged. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Including the viewers in the live stream, no one had processed what had just happened yet.
Why suddenly throw it?
Who caught the bamboo hat?
Is this how they choose lucky audience members now?
Um… speaking of which, did the hat need to be returned?
Soon, the camera zoomed out, and the image on the large screen gradually expanded outward from the hand that caught the bamboo hat.
With the hand and bamboo hat as the dividing line, to the left was the owner of the mysterious hand that had everyone puzzled. To the right was Yan Qiao, who at some point had walked to the edge of the stage and crouched down on one knee.
The side profile of the face under the cloak’s hood, with its cold fair skin tone, gradually became clear, while an amused smile gradually appeared on the young chivalrous swordsman’s face.
The director slyly gave simultaneous close-ups of both their side profiles, enlarging and aligning them on opposite diagonals of the large screen.
The pure black cloak contrasted with the already fair skin, making it look almost transparent, like a pearl at the bottom of the water, clean and translucent.
A few strands of golden hair peeked out against his cheek, and his eyes, appearing particularly emerald green in the shadows, quietly gazed at the young man on stage.
The person being gazed at was crouching in a rather unrestrained and casual way. He raised his left hand and lazily propped up his chin. The blade of dogtail grass between his lips moved from the left side of his mouth to the right, his smile carrying an indescribable frivolous and charming quality.
He looked exactly like a peacock showing off its feathers.
[Aaaaaaah!!!]
[What the heck!! I want to report!! These two are too foul!!!]
[Quentin??? It’s Quentin?? OMG%￥#@#!!!!]
[Who designed this segment… I am shipping this CP]
[One crouches by the brilliantly lit stage, one hides in the unobserved shadows. This confrontation of light and darkness. Another legendary screenshot!!!]
[I knew Quentin’s stage would not be that simple, but this is not right [facepalm] Baby, Mom really can’t control your CP fans anymore [wiping tears]]
[Yan Qiao… hehe… Yan Qiao… Brother Qiao…]
[The sexual tension is about to burst. ww I want become the dogtail grass in gege’s mouth [blushing][drooling]]
[A wild and unruly wandering heretic × a calm and righteous blonde knight, a chivalrous jianghu hero × a beautiful foreign visitor from the Western Regions, a handsome main dancer who seems flirtatious but is actually devoted × a face-genius, talented demon king team leader… A triple stack, you can ship them no matter what [dog head]]
[Here it comes, it is here!! QT’s new song!!!]
