Champion
Xu Changjia looked at herself in the hotel mirror several times, feeling awkward about the green dress she was wearing.
It's not that the dress doesn't fit, it's just that in both her past and present lives she's mostly worn long sleeves and jeans, and she's hardly ever worn tracksuits. Dresses are something she's completely estranged from, so it's understandable that she feels uncomfortable wearing one.
I can now wear clothes with confidence because after I met Ou Liyao, she helped me choose a lot of clothes that suited me.
In her words, why dress so old-fashioned at such a young age? You should show the beauty of your age. Isn't it better to wear some bright dresses?
So much so that she received two pale yellow dresses from her best friend on her birthday, which she absolutely loved.
Is the person in front of the mirror, with her exquisite makeup and fitted dress, really her? There's no trace of her lifeless appearance from her past life.
The alarm for entering at six o'clock rang. Xu Changjia picked up her phone and another small camera she had borrowed from Ou Liyao, which was perfect for taking photos and videos at the concert. She also asked that she be sure to take lots of photos of Zheng Ruoqian live to show her, to make up for her regret of not being able to go to the concert.
Xu Changjia agreed to everything. Having had the experience of going to H country to see a concert before, she was bold enough to go abroad alone this time.
I also learned a new trick from others in the fan club: bring two phones.
One phone takes photos and records videos, while the other phone records audio throughout the process.
It won't interfere with taking photos and videos during her concert, and you won't have to worry too much about constantly pressing the phone or it running out of battery. You'll also get a complete version of the concert audio after the concert so you can relive it anytime.
Since mobile phones are slightly cheaper in the US than in China, she planned to buy one after she went abroad.
Yesterday I was with Brother Yunhe and even asked him for advice. I bought one that was pretty good value for money.
After setting up her equipment for the concert, she walked alone towards the Imperial Palace Stadium. Gradually, quite a few fans were already entering the venue.
Inside the stadium, there were seven life-size cardboard cutouts of people, each three meters tall. Even before she went inside, she could see many people raising their phones to take photos with them. After all, it was her debut concert, so the proper scenes had to be there.
Although being pushed forward by the crowd, one can feel the electric-like excitement in the air that resonates with the aura of vampires, as well as the revelry of fans from all over the world.
The human standee is just the first check-in point set up by the organizers. If you continue walking forward, you will see a 50-meter-long signature wall, which features seven cartoon vampire figures of Champion. Each of them has a small element representing them in the lower right corner.
She looked at them one by one: the passionate and brave Bruch, the beastly Gangro, the righteous Mokawi, the infinitely charming Torido, the extraordinary talent Remer, the flexible Revenno, and the ambitious Assassin.
When she saw the thorn demon representing Zheng Ruoqian, she was stunned for a moment before realizing that this was a vampire who pursued knowledge and was skilled in magic and shapeshifting. The positioning given by their YL company was quite accurate.
According to the concert's check-in arrangement, each fan can choose a different colored pen to sign or draw on the autograph wall, or write down their message for the soon-to-debut boy group.
She naturally followed suit and wrote in the lower right corner of Zheng Ruoqian's post: May your journey be filled with flowers, your path to stardom be smooth, and may you be free from wind and thorns.
She couldn't draw, so she drew a small heart with a green pen next to her. This action made the girl next to her realize that her favorite character in Champion was Zheng Ruoqian, the treacherous vampire.
The other person approached her and gave her a small card they had printed themselves, saying, "Hey sis, are you a fan of Zheng Ruoqian too? I saw you were wearing a dress in his support color, and just now..."
This was the first time she had encountered something like this. She smiled and accepted the card. She didn't have anything to give in return, but then she remembered that she had brought back a bag of colorful candies and a silver earring from the town of Pangpangpang.
He gave her a whole box of colorful candies and a pair of earrings. "My name is Xu Changjia, from Junzhou, Z country. Sister, where are you from?"
“I’m also from Country Z, but I’m from the South Bank. My name is Jiang Shuyun.” She accepted the gift and walked towards the inner area with Xu Changjia.
The young fan also felt it was a niche audience. Sure enough, people who like Zheng Ruoqian have great taste. Her seat was in the back rows. She couldn't get a seat in the front rows of the inner area, so she made an appointment with Xu Changjia to take a group photo with them after the event.
She smiled and agreed, found a seat in the third row of the inner field, and then took out her phone to take pictures all around the stadium for six years, and even recorded a video as a memento.
Even in such a crowded setting, she still struggles with socializing. The room was filled with people all around her, each one beaming with joy, seemingly eagerly anticipating the concert.
The concert started promptly at 7:00 PM, and all the lights in the entire Imperial Palace were turned off.
As a spotlight fell and the music began, the audience fell silent until they saw seven people appear in a pillar of light in the center of the stage.
"See you, my baby."
Champion's leader, Chu Tai, shouted out the title track from their new album, instantly igniting the atmosphere in the audience.
Fans raised their glow sticks, turning them into a uniform silver color, swaying in perfect unison just like during training. It was like a dreamy silver sea that Champion had tailored for all its supporters, giving us an ideal utopia.
The group performed three group songs as a base, followed by individual performances by each of the seven members. Zheng Ruoqian's performance was in the middle, and the one after the leader, Chu Tai, was next in line.
He still brought "Nine Stars Moon" to the stage, the first truly meaningful stage in his life.
This time, with 3,500 spectators watching him, his gaze lingered for ten seconds, searching for Xu Changjia in the crowd. Only when he saw her waving a green glow stick, smiling and moved, did he look away and sing the two lines of lyrics he had changed—
I'll accompany you to soar through the heavens and pluck countless stars from the Milky Way.
I'll accompany you to dive thousands of miles into the sea, and wander through the mirror-like waters and moon-like landscapes.
I'll walk with you a little further, until we're surrounded by crowds, and you only have eyes for me.
His perfect voice, mixed with the cool, bubbly sounds of the approaching sweltering summer, made Xu Changjia, sitting in the audience with his camera in hand, sway his head slightly and silently sing along: "I'll walk with you a little longer, until the crowds are surging, and you only have eyes for me."
Did he specifically change this part of the lyrics for today's stage?
As the first performance ended, his unrestrained and flamboyant smile was magnified infinitely on the big screen, and a cheer erupted from below, with everyone shouting "Zheng Ruoqian! Zheng Ruoqian! Zheng Ruoqian!"
She looked back and saw that everyone had put down their glow sticks, replaced by fan signs and banners for the vampire assassin, and some people had even made his-related dolls, just to hold them up higher and higher so that he could see them.
He smiled and waved to everyone, then announced to himself, "The next show is a singing and dancing performance—'Werewolf'!"
His perfect dance moves, coupled with his meticulously designed stage costumes, were finally seen by the public!
Looking at the big screen and all the cameras on site, Hsu Chang-chia felt like he had finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
She seemed to grab the person next to her and say, "Look, the person I've been watching over for so long has finally been seen. It was the right thing for me to stick with him."
I will never give up.
It's as if he's singing about himself, or as if he's saying goodbye to his four-plus years of trainee life.
She stared at the performance on stage for a long time, unable to come back to her senses, until the girl next to her handed her a tissue, and she realized that she was already in tears.
She wasn't the only one moved by this grand and solemn "rectification of name".
The concert had just come to an end when it went viral on social media, dominating the top ten topics and making each of the seven group members a household name.
They hadn't received their phones yet and didn't know any of this. They were still diligently signing autographs and taking photos with every fan present. The 3,000 people in the stands all got one group photo for every ten people, and could also take a separate photo with one or two members. The 500 people in the inner field got one group photo for each of them and seven group members, and could also get two extra individual photos.
When Jiang Shuyun squeezed to the front, she noticed that her eyes were red, as if she had just been crying. She knew that she was a sentimental person and a fellow Champion.
She took the initiative to exchange contact information with Xu Changjia, and they even discussed the stage performances that were trending on Weibo today, with "Werewolf" prominently featured.
"By the way, Hsu Chang-chia, don't you think their management company is a bit baffling? There were 27 shows today, and half of them featured English songs. How many of the fans who paid the bill were actually foreigners?"
"It's not that a few of the fans who pay the bill are foreigners, but rather that the company's initial positioning for them was to create a global phenomenon boy band. Their market was set on the global scale, not just limited to our small country of Z."
"You sound like you know a lot about this."
Of course, Zheng Ruoqian is my good friend.
She didn't dare tell the champion fan she had just met what was in her heart. She just smiled and didn't say anything. She followed her to the autograph line and took two steps.
Her phone screen suddenly lit up; it was a WeChat message from Zheng Ruoqian.
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