Chapter 25
Almost at the moment when Jie Xichao's name came out, an uncontrollable sound of people gasping for air was heard in the venue.
Jie Xichao's eyes moved slightly, and he raised his eyes rarely.
He guessed that there might be variables, but he didn't expect that this variable would actually come true.
Qiu Xuerui simply announced her name and left the stage.
This is the last item on the agenda for today.
Off the stage, everyone was useless for a moment. Xie Xichao stood up:
"Let's go."
Ai Qingyuan followed him in a daze, which was rare for him.
After walking only two steps, Ji Yan rushed over. He couldn't say anything else and shook Jie Xichao madly: "Brother, brother you are so awesome! Holy shit! In the top 20 in one week! This is fucking rocket speed!"
Xie Xichao was shaken so hard that his head felt dizzy. Fortunately, Ai Qingyuan came to his senses and rescued him in time: "...Little follower, can you be more steady?"
"It's just a promotion of 22 places." He said nonchalantly.
But his wandering eyes while speaking revealed that he was not in a peaceful mood at the moment.
Ji Yan: "Listen to what you are saying, are you talking like a human being?"
Ai Qingyuan was too lazy to pay attention to him.
He is in a very complicated mood now.
On the one hand, he did feel it was a pity that Jie Xichao lost the chance to attend the meeting because of the program crew's reasons.
on the other hand……
He twitched his lips. This speed is too fast.
His face was changing constantly, and some people's expressions were simply ugly.
When Ni Xin passed by them, he was almost like a gust of wind. His back was fast and urgent. Ai Qingyuan was thinking about life and was touched by his sleeve. He raised his head in displeasure: "Who is walking without looking at the road?"
Then he found out that it was a teammate from the same company. He was stunned for a moment.
Ji Yan watched the fun from the sidelines and said, "Young Master, you know your teammate is ranked 21st this time and almost got to go to the fan meeting."
Ai Qingyuan was stunned.
Then he said, "Didn't you say that he couldn't go because he was blocking the seat?"
What a wild thing.
Ji Yan's mouth twitched. This person's emotional intelligence is really high.
He couldn't stand Ni Xin, so naturally he wouldn't speak for him. Guan Heng on the side said:
"You go first."
Xie Xichao said: “Yes.”
He knew that Guan Heng was going to comfort Ni Xin.
After Guan Heng left, several people returned to the practice room.
This time, without waiting for Jie Xichao to urge him, Ai Qingyuan silently started playing the accompaniment.
Jie Xichao was stunned for a few seconds, then shook his head helplessly.
He went to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water.
When he looked up, he saw himself in the mirror.
After a long time, he suddenly smiled at himself in the mirror.
-
Xie Xichao's ranking among the trainees has great potential.
Everyone was talking about his rapid rise in ranking. The embarrassing expressions on the production team's faces that day, as if they had eaten a fly, finally showed signs of being there.
Some people still hold a sour attitude, some are simply surprised, and some are really touched.
Xie Xichao's family background cannot be said to be bad, but his company is really bad. Before the show started, he was a completely unpopular amateur.
Xie Xichao made them realize one thing.
That means you have the ability and work hard, and it will really be noticed by the audience and fans.
All of a sudden, the atmosphere within the entire trainee group became much more positive. These days, lights are on in every practice room.
Of course, 113 is no exception.
It was certainly a pleasant surprise to be able to go to the meet-and-greet. But Xie Xichao knows very well in his heart that an idol’s main job is still on stage. "Super Rookie" will have three performances in total, three opportunities for fans to see it.
Considering that the editing and mechanism of the program team are debuffs for him, he must seize every opportunity.
He still tried his best to maintain a regular schedule, but after consulting the program's doctor, he extended his practice time as much as possible.
"Stand by" is a boy group song with a refreshing style.
Like many popular love songs, its lyrics are also related to love. But it is not a heavy and intense love song. On the contrary, it describes more like a vigorous secret love in spring and summer.
The two parties in secret love are interested in each other, but they are still at the stage of testing each other. There is no sadness, only the playful and quirky push and pull of teenagers.
Strictly speaking, this style is quite difficult.
It is not like the purely cute style, which is picky about face and age, but boyishness is something more illusory. How to maintain freshness while competing with the sexy stage style that naturally has a bombastic temperament is a difficult problem.
Fortunately, they have templates.
*
After getting the song and finishing the basic vocal and dance lessons, Xie Xichao took the public equipment and led them to analyze the video frame by frame.
"Are you going to do the same stage as your predecessor?"
Someone asked anxiously.
"No." Xie Xichao said, "It's about finding the feeling."
He paused and said jokingly, "If the choreography is exactly the same, by the time our performance is over, there will be a lot of comparison and criticism videos flying around."
The man suddenly realized.
This is actually everyone's concern. The original version is so good, and all the artists are carefully selected and mature. They are definitely not able to compare.
But Xie Xichao said, "It doesn't matter."
Two days later, everyone knew what "it doesn't matter" meant.
Xie Xichao spent two days making subtle adjustments to the choreography and vocal parts based on their parts. It not only retains most of the core of the original version, but also highlights the new ideas. The most important thing is——
They found that their practice was not as strenuous as before.
Most of the trainees who joined Ai Qingyuan's group were top-ranked trainees.
They were arrogant and their original attitude towards Jie Xichao could be described as cautious and hesitant.
But after everything happened, all the subtle little emotions were exhausted, leaving only admiration and gratitude.
Except Ai Qingyuan.
Once again, he caught someone in the practice room and said angrily, "You're killing yourself."
Jie Xichao raised his eyes from the floor-length mirror. There was a light sweat on his forehead and a faint blush on his cheeks. The bright color of the lips reminded Ai Qingyuan of the young man in white clothes with red lips and white teeth who was holding an umbrella and whom he met while walking on the ancient street in the Jiangnan area last time.
But at the same time, he knew that although Xie Xichao looked weak, he had an extremely strong tenacity in his bones.
He was speechless for a moment, but Xie Xichao didn't care.
He waited until he recovered and then drank a sip of water: "It's okay."
"I know what's going on," he said.
This is the truth.
Ai Qingyuan rolled his eyes in his heart.
Xie Xichao thought thoughtfully: "If you care about me, you can do me a favor."
Ai Qingyuan:?
The next day, Ai Qingyuan had a blank expression on his face as he looked into the eyes of his teammates who were nervously waiting for guidance.
Half a minute later, he spoke sparingly and coldly:
"Jump."
-
The trainees are practicing hard for the performances, and at the same time, "Super Rookie" has also sparked heated discussions on the Internet.
This time the cause is very clear, it is the quota for the press conference.
With all the first stages released, the popularity of "Super Rookie" has undergone the first reshuffle.
The trainees who originally had their own fans but did not have outstanding performances gradually fell behind. On the contrary, the trainees who were strong on stage or had interesting personalities gradually gained popularity as they had more materials. Among them, the most obvious one is Jie Xichao.
From the moment the theme song was announced and his identity as the initial C was exposed, he was destined to become the biggest miracle of this draft.
"Super Rookie" hardly bought any hot searches for him at the beginning, which resulted in his popularity always being limited to the fan circle.
But soon, someone moved. This "person" is Yaoxin, the company behind Jie Xichao.
When Yao Xin's boss Qi Yin saw the theme song, he remembered that one of his employees seemed to have participated in this talent show.
The employee sang a nice song on the first stage and his talent seemed pretty good. Another look...
Wow!
His beautiful employee also took the center position.
This needs to be publicized.
This must be publicized.
Qi Yin got up from his gaming chair and called the company's public relations department directly:
"Hello? Uh, this is Manager Li. Sorry, I called the wrong number."
I went to report to my own team coach.
He changed his phone silently.
"Hello? I'm Qi Yin."
Oh, this time it’s right.
Young Master Qi looked at the young boy on the screen and said cheerfully, "Yes, buy trending searches."
“How many should I buy?”
"Of course I will buy as many as I can, and I will also buy marketing accounts. Within one day, I must see the theme song stages of our employees spread all over the Internet. Money is not a problem, that's it."
Money is not a problem. This is one of the most beautiful sentences in the world.
So within one day, the theme song of "Super Rookie" was everywhere.
At the same time, Jie Xichao's name was everywhere.
In fact, it stands to reason that such large-scale marketing is very likely to cause disgust among passers-by.
But if any slightly rebellious passerby clicks on the video, most people will immediately forget their previous feelings.
Because it looks good.
It's not the death disco-like lighting and the extremely tacky uniforms that are good-looking, but the person standing on the highest round platform.
The boy has gentle features and his eyes are smart and firm. The moment he raised his eyes, the remaining 99 trainees in the audience seemed to be eclipsed in an instant.
This is the first and absolutely unexpected C position in the history of "Super Rookie".
He is also the only one who can absolutely dominate the scene. Just like that, Xie Xichao's popularity grew higher and higher, and the news that his meeting spots were cut also came at this time.
*
At first, netizens didn’t notice anything unusual. The forum is still hotly discussing this fan meeting. But soon, someone noticed something unusual. One post instantly became a big hit.
[By the way, the production team suddenly cut the number of places, it feels like there is something fishy going on]
Whose road is this blocking?
Isn't it because of the venue restrictions that they cut it to twenty? What's the trick?
1L
The above person is so naive. The super new program team is notoriously cunning. There must be a reason for this.
2L
Yes, in fact, which talent show is not a game of capital? It's just that Chaoxin has more conscience and aesthetics than other shows, and the royals selected are all pretty good.
But cutting the number of places seems like a big deal. I've seen people increase the number of places just to protect the emperor. This is too malicious. What's wrong with letting the little idol meet his fans?
3L
Speaking of malicious intent, xxz is the No. 1 target of the program team. He was a good junior C in the second episode, but his screen time was cut to zero. Did he have five seconds of screen time in the dormitory segment?
4L
xxz is really awesome, he is a great singer and dancer, and he has no shortcomings in looks, height, and personality. If the company wasn't rotten and the production team wasn't visibly bombproof, I would have invested in him. What a pity
5L
Back to 4L, including the background board shot is 6.8 seconds.
6L
save……
7L
But he really attracted fans as soon as he showed his face. His fans increased by tens of thousands in his first stage performance, and his fans increased even more after the theme song was played. Do you know that blogger Lingdang? It seems that she went directly to the xxz fan club
8L
Lingling, I know, she loves this one. She has a sharp eye. I am a little tempted when she says that.
So the program team is preventing explosion? No way, he was only 42 last week, it won't be his turn if we don't cut him
9L
In the first two weeks, it was all the casual fans who voted. This week, only when Lingling came did the voting group appear. The production team must have first-hand data. I always feel that it is because of him.
10L
Not bad, it fits my stereotype that the super new program team is cowardly and sinister
11L
Since there is data, then this quota is a height that can never be reached, pitiful...
I'll vote for it. The song you composed on the first stage is really nice.
12L
+1, I was a little disgusted by his company's inhumane marketing, it's too bullying
13L
I really hate the behavior of capital treating show fans as fools and scapegoats. Ah, sister Lingdang, can you step up and bring some loose powder to show the program team some color?
14L
…
At this moment, Ming Ling had just seen the announcement from the program team.
She has now become the president of the Xichao Fans Association.
Over the past half month, she has basically formed the initial backbone of the entire fan club, and together they have managed the super topic and various support activities in an orderly manner. In addition to the university courses she is still attending, she has been so busy that she has hardly updated her Weibo.
But she feels a sense of accomplishment.
She is now a junior in college, studying business management. After graduation, if nothing unexpected happens, she will work in her parents' company and then inherit the family business. This kind of life made her feel a little bit bored in her efforts, so she chose blogging as a side job.
Now, she feels like she has found a second side hustle.
She was very calm when the news of the quota cut came out.
She calmly turned off the straight-shot video that had been looping for almost fifty times. On the computer screensaver, a beautiful man who brought disaster to the country was smiling faintly. She took a deep breath, opened the internal work group of the fan club, and quickly typed:
"Family, are you there? Come on, come on—"
Half an hour later, a detailed emergency voting plan was sent to the group. The voting group posted a voting tutorial in the super topic and began organizing the voting.
-
Voting is neither difficult nor easy. The most important thing is to maximize the use of limited resources at hand, including manpower, funds and accounts.
And resource allocation is exactly what Mingling is good at.
During the two days, she organized all the work in an orderly manner, and even had time to urge her little sister who was still in school to go to bed early. That night, she rarely watched the show, since Jie Xichao would basically not appear on camera anyway.
She scrolled to the end of the progress bar and saw the new ranking directly.
The moment she saw Jie Xichao's name, all her fatigue from the past two days disappeared.
At this time, the Chaoxin forum was already boiling.
"Ahhhhhh Sister Lingdang is awesome! Jiefan is awesome!!"
"New fans are just passionate. Show me how excited I am!!"
"Fuck, I'm going to cry... Who knows what this is? Fans of the original protagonist are all trying to change their fate. It's really exciting!"
There were countless comments like this, and by the time the program team reacted and wanted to control public opinion, the situation was already out of control.
That evening, the entry #解夕朝逆天改命 became a top search topic.
Xie Xichao's name has completely become well-known in the entire super new fan circle.
Jie Xichao, who was locked up in the base and couldn't even provide internet access to a village, was unaware of all this.
*
The day before the meeting, Xie Xichao suddenly suffered from insomnia.
This is a very rare thing.
It would be an exaggeration to say that it is strict to every minute and every second, but Xie Xichao's daily routine is indeed incredibly regular. This is because the system tasks all have countdowns, and long-term exposure to time forms a habit.
He has a stable character and his predecessors all said that he was a good fit in this line of work. However, after his service period was up, he chose to return to his original form.
Insomnia is a very accidental thing for Xie Xichao.
He opened his eyes in the darkness, and the dice beside his pillow sensed his mental fluctuations and emitted a faint and bright light.
Jie Xichao pinched the small dice like he was touching a pet, and the dice turned off obediently.
The number shown on the dice is 6.
Everything goes well.
Jie Xichao closed his eyes again, and the faces of those former fans flashed through his mind vaguely. They were looking at him, but calling him not by his name, but by his "character name".
Then soon, because of his "bad deeds", these people left.
The shabby signboard flickered in the darkness, and before dawn, the last ray of light went out.
As the light went out, Jie Xichao fell into a deep sleep again. There was still nothing in his dream. He slept soundly until the next morning, and was then woken up by Ji Yan, who was excited and excited.
"Brother, hurry up, get up and put on makeup!"
Opposite him, Ai Qingyuan threw a pillow at Ji Yan: "Ji Yan, you are fucking calling your soul!"
...So we finally went together.
There are four people in a dormitory, plus one non-staff member, and all of them are in the top 20. Along the way, their group received countless people's attention.
The makeup artist was an old acquaintance of Xie Xichao. She was chewing gum as she greeted him lazily, "Come on, big star. There are only 20 people today. You are treated as a VIP. You can try on the makeup first. What style do you want?"
Xie Xichao smiled and said, "What do you think?"
"Don't call you that!" the girl threatened, holding up a makeup brush, "You're getting old."
Then she said, "Or should I give you some more tricks?"
Xie Xichao looks gentle and very adaptable. Just a little upward eyeliner or some suitable decoration can turn gentleness into seductiveness.
Xie Xichao said, "Let's change."
He paused, "Can I make it look younger? Something with a stronger youthful feel and a more refreshing look?"
"You little brat." The makeup artist laughed, "How old are you?"
"I understand." She said, "Come and sit down."
Fifteen minutes later, Xie Xichao opened his eyes.
Compared to before, girls put on makeup very quickly. This makeup look doesn’t take a lot of time either.
At this moment, there is basically no heavy color on his face, and at first glance, it is almost impossible to tell that he is wearing makeup.
But if you look closely, you can still see the difference.
The eyebrows were slightly adjusted along the original eyebrow shape, making them look more refreshing. The end of the eye is also lightly outlined with eyeliner, the bags under the eye are very light, and the lip makeup is a bean paste color that is close to the natural color of the lips.
But it is these details that make him look like a high school student who has not yet graduated.
He went to the dressing room again to communicate with the stylist and asked him to find him a set of clothes.
Dark blue loose shorts, about knee-length, with a white graffiti T-shirt and a sky blue denim jacket. Paired with white sneakers, this time she is so pretty that no one would recognize her even if she were to go to school.
Xie Xi thanked the stylist, took the clothes and walked out, and met Guan Heng and Ai Qingyuan who came in.
Both of them were stunned for a moment.
After a moment, Ai Qingyuan said, "Tsk... why are you pretending to be so young?"
He is still dressed in black and white today, with "I'm the coolest" engraved in his DNA.
Xie Xichao ignored it skillfully.
Guan Heng, who was standing by, looked at him dressed like this and thought of something. He said thoughtfully, "I don't know why, but I think our little Qingyuan is going to lose. Xichao, what do you think?"
Xie Xichao walked past him with a smile: "It hasn't even started yet, that's not happening."
Watertight.
-
After changing clothes and putting on makeup, the group set off for the meet-and-greet event. Because we had a schedule in the afternoon, no one had much to eat at noon.
When we got to the backstage, the person in charge checked the itinerary with everyone again. Through the door, we could hear the noisy voices outside.
"I'm a little nervous, brother." Ji Yan lowered his voice.
Xie Xichao didn't answer.
After a while, Ji Yan felt something being gently stuffed into his pocket.
He took it out and found it was a mint candy.
He peeled off the candy wrapper.
The cool taste spread in my mouth, not only making my mind clearer, but also relieving some of the tension.
He looked at Jie Xichao's calm profile and didn't know how to write the word "admiration".
Soon, the host came on stage to start the show.
When hearing "Now, welcome our trainees," Jie Xichao heard someone in the crowd clearly gasp.
He lowered his eyes and walked quietly at the end.
Surrounded by flowers, fragrances, and bright lights, the microphone was passed all the way.
At dusk, he finally took the microphone, pressed the earphone button, and raised his eyes:
"Hello everyone, I'm Jie Xichao. Xi means sunset, Chao means morning and evening."
Amid the cheers of the audience, he saw his banner.
The three characters "Jie Xichao" are surrounded by lovely and bright decorations, which are brilliant.
*
The meeting will last approximately two hours. It started as a group interview and we had reviewed the script in advance, so the atmosphere and rhythm were very good.
As the twentieth place, Xie Xichao does not have much weight as usual. But it was hard for anyone present not to notice him.
His sitting posture is basically the best among everyone.
Not to mention the standards, even though you are just sitting casually, you can inexplicably look more elegant than others.
But his outfit today is not so elegant. Below the stage, whispers could be heard from the fans' seats from time to time.
"Oh my god... such a thin waist, such white skin, and such beautiful ankles. I am so perverted TT"
"Who matched his clothes with this? The style is so different from his first stage performance. He looks so young, like a boy next door."
"No wonder my sister said that Jie Xichao has a lot of fans offline. I'm stunned. This is no different from the fan page picture."
"...So can you let me speak?"
As it turns out, not likely.
In the first half, Xie Xichao sang very few words. When the host cues him, he will speak in order only during group interviews.
Despite this, the atmosphere was very lively when he spoke.
The first half passed in a flash and the long interview finally ended. It's time for the second half of the game.
With only one hour left, it was impossible to prepare a game that was too complicated. The first game is the clichéd musical chairs. A game that trains your reaction skills and sells... uh, business at the same time.
Xie Xichao had a quick reaction, but he hated physical contact and found a seat by chance, so he left with regret after the number of people was reduced by half.
He sat back down in his seat, and the girl below called his name: "Chao Chao, you need to work harder, don't be so graceful! Camera, camera!"
The sound was so funny that as soon as the words were spoken, everyone around burst into laughter.
Jie Xichao was also stunned for a moment, and then he found the source of the voice. It was a lively little girl wearing a baseball cap.
He curled his lips towards the other party and said seriously: "Okay, I'll try hard in the next game."
This smile was so beautiful that everyone screamed.
As a result, no one paid attention to Ai Qingyuan, who had just won the first place in the musical chairs competition.
He snorted, pretended not to care, and returned to his seat.
Next game, you draw and I guess.
Perhaps the program crew was awakened by this shout and finally realized that their intentions were a little known to everyone. After calling a few popular contestants, the host announced that the remaining half of the candidates would be chosen by the confirmed contestants themselves.
At this moment, the fans in the audience woke up immediately.
To be honest, there are only three interesting parts of this kind of meeting. One is the disclosure of information to each other, one is the interaction between the contestants, and the last one is the interaction with the fans.
The last one goes without saying, this is the charm of chasing offline. The first two are just as interesting.
Humans are social animals. There is a subtle difference between the charm of a person in a social relationship and when he is alone. In simple terms, a chemical reaction occurs between people.
This is also the reason why many fans of boy and girl groups are keen on shipping couples.
As soon as the host finished speaking, the audience became excited again.
Currently, there are four people standing on the stage in the first round.
Ai Qingyuan, Guan Heng, Fu Wenze and Ji Yan.
There was a lot of discussion in the audience.
“Fuck, can my couple finally get to know each other? Lu Xing and Ai Qingyuan, can you two get to know each other?”
"Ahhh, I support the Shenghong twins. Damn it, why did you separate Xiao Ai and Heng Ge?! Production team, can't you bear to see young couples being so sweet?"
"…It's so lively, is there anyone who can take us to Chao Chao? We just want to hear him say a few words TT"
The last sentence was quite sad, and the people around cast sympathetic glances at the poor fan.
Because he was sitting at the edge of the stage, Xie Xichao also heard these words.
He just laughed it off.
Coincidentally, all the people on the stage were his acquaintances.
But there is no need to use moral blackmail on this matter.
He is very Buddhist.
Because he is a Buddhist, when people around him started to give eye hints to the popular contestant on the stage, he had already cleared his mind and was in a daze.
Until the host's voice came: "Then, each contestant can choose the partner they want."
As soon as the words were spoken, two voices sounded at the same time.
“Brother, brother!”
"Jie Xichao."
Xie Xichao: “…”
He raised his eyes in surprise and saw Ai Qingyuan and Ji Yan, whose faces turned worse at the same time.
——And Guan Heng and Fu Wenzhe, who were already driving towards him but suddenly braked and pretended nothing had happened.
The whole audience fell into an eerie silence.
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