Chapter 43 Climbing the Wall [Side Quest 1 Completed]
After receiving the promised reply, Shi Yao spent a full thirty seconds recalling the situation on the scene today.
Once she decided to use the buff, she kept it on for almost the entire time, only taking a few minutes off twice when she needed to renew the buff.
Aside from greeting her at the beginning with the other trainees, Yingxu was only on stage when her group performed at the end. The rest of the time she was backstage, so there was no chance of running into her.
As for what she looks like, it's even less likely that he'd know.
She had only met Yingxu three times in person, each time under a different identity.
The first time she temporarily filled in at the convenience store, she was wearing the convenience store uniform and a very thick mask on her face. Although she was very close to Yingxu, he didn't dare to make eye contact with Shiyao at the time, and in such a short time, he definitely didn't remember what she looked like.
The second time was on Yingxu's birthday. It was so far away and at night. Shiyao was holding her phone the whole time, so it was even more impossible for Yingxu to see her face.
The third time was today. She was hidden in the huge crowd of spectators, and with the invisibility buff, it was even more impossible for her to be seen.
First of all, none of these identities fit together. It's hard to say whether Yingxu even remembers the convenience store clerk. The only identity he has a strong impression of is that of the fan site manager, but that doesn't match Shi Yao herself.
From the time they added each other on WeChat until now, from the perspective of a client, the two have never met in person. She should only think of her as someone who runs a business and owns a studio.
A convenience store clerk is a convenience store clerk, a fan site admin is a fan site admin, and Teacher Daqiang is Teacher Daqiang.
The fan site admin did go to the offline event, but what does that have to do with anyone else?
This kid has gone astray; he even knows how to scam her.
After reviewing the logic and confirming that there were no oversights, Shi Yao leaned back against the wall with peace of mind.
I've always been very tactful when chatting with her before, so why is she suddenly doing this today? Could it be that she wants to ask to meet in person?
After all, it's not a small transaction, and constantly communicating online can indeed make one feel insecure.
But meeting wasn't a problem. The previous times they met, he had kept it very secret, so even if Shi Yao went openly, no one would notice anything amiss.
[AAA's Growth and Strengthening: Am I in a Hurry?]
[AAA's ambition to grow bigger and stronger: You're just in a hurry, aren't you?]
[AAA is growing bigger and stronger: What's wrong? Not happy on stage today? I thought you performed quite well.]
Shi Yao subtly changed the subject, and as expected, the other side remained silent for a while.
[Promise: Aren't you curious that I know what you look like?]
[AAA's Growth and Strength: How would you know what I look like if we've never even met?]
[AAA's Growth and Strength: Open the Box for Me!]
[AAA Growing Bigger and Stronger: [Panda in Terror.gif]]
This time, the other end remained completely silent, and it took a full five minutes for them to reply.
[Promise: No, I was just kidding.]
[Promise: I had a lot of fun on stage today. It was a stage I had been really looking forward to, and I had put a lot of effort into preparing for it these past few days.]
[AAA is growing bigger and stronger: I felt it, you jumped so cool!]
[AAA is growing bigger and stronger: You've worked hard, now you can relax a little]
[AAA is going to grow bigger and stronger: We guarantee you'll be number one in the next round! [sunglasses]]
[Promise: You really didn't come to the scene?]
The other party has retracted a message.
[Promise: Okay, thank you]
Shi Yaowan glanced at the screen for a second, then opened it and found that a message had been retracted. So she asked again what had been retracted.
[Promise: It's nothing, just a typo.]
[AAA grows bigger and stronger: ooo]
[AAA is growing bigger and stronger: Then you should get some rest.]
...
Put down your phone and gently cover your eyes with your palms.
After a long while, he sat up and sighed softly.
When Li Yuzhe returned to his room after buying things outside, he saw Ying Xu sitting blankly on her bed, looking lost and dejected. He asked with concern, "What's wrong, Xiao Xu?"
When Yingxu came to her senses and noticed that there was someone else in the room, she looked a little awkward and scratched her head: "It's nothing, I was just thinking about something."
Li Yuzhe put down the convenience bag in his hand and walked to Yingxu's bed. Their dormitory was a three-person room with three single beds arranged in a row, and there was only a passage of less than half a meter between the beds.
His bed was in the middle, Yingxu's was at the very back, and Jiang Yi's was on the outside. Because he was the eldest, he took the initiative to become the room leader. He would often chat with his two younger brothers when he had nothing to do.
Although their fans are locked in fierce battles, the three of them get along quite well.
Li Yuzhe had debuted before and was a little older than the other two. He had a very easygoing personality. When the trainees in Class F asked him questions during the theme song practice, he would teach them. Jiang Yi and Ying Xu were both introverted and the kind of people who were down-to-earth and didn't cause trouble. Li Yuzhe felt very comfortable having these two obedient younger brothers as roommates.
Although from the outside world's perspective, Ying Xu is now his strongest competitor for the center position, Li Yuzhe still finds it difficult to feel any dislike for him.
When he came here, he only wanted to debut. Being able to stand in his current position was a complete surprise. Even if he can't stay in the center position in the end, he has no regrets.
Even during the time he and Yingxu were roommates, he increasingly felt that Yingxu was the one who was truly suited to be in the center position.
Promises are too much.
Now that two rounds of eliminations have been completed and the third round is about to begin, the remaining trainees are no longer the kind who were just there to make a name for themselves. Everyone wants to stay as long as possible and hopes to debut.
Everyone is very self-disciplined in practicing. Unlike the first and second rounds, when some people would slack off and sleep in instead of practicing, in the third round, even without the selection manager urging them, everyone will not procrastinate.
Everyone should spend as much time as possible in the practice room. If you can't change your destiny elsewhere, then do your best to make the stage performance perfect.
Li Yuzhe himself was also someone who left early and returned late. In his first group, besides him, there were three other trainees who were ranked in the debut group, and the remaining three were all within the top fifteen. It was a very strong Avengers group overall.
All seven members are quite skilled and practice very diligently. As the center and captain, Li Yuzhe not only has to practice his own part every day, but also keep an eye on everyone's positioning and uniformity, which is very hard work.
He usually gets back to his dorm around 11 or 12 o'clock, but he leaves at 8 o'clock in the morning. Excluding meal time, he spends 14 or 15 hours a day practicing.
But he was even more determined than Xu.
Since the end of Il-soon, Yingxu has become incredibly popular. Brands and production teams have been frantically trying to get him to record content, and even off-screen brands and magazines want to contact him. Trainees basically have to follow the production team's arrangements for all the commercial deals they receive on the show, meaning Yingxu can't refuse.
After he became famous, he practiced for the second public performance, then the second public performance, and then the third public performance. The time for each performance was very tight, and he also had to catch up on a lot of material that had not been recorded before. He could only squeeze in practice time whenever he could.
The production team starts recording at nine o'clock every day and ends at ten o'clock at night. Yingxu would leave for the practice room at seven o'clock or even six-thirty, practice for two or three hours before going to do interviews and commercial recordings. After the recording, she would go to practice again without stopping, often not returning until one or two o'clock in the morning.
But he didn't complain at all, nor did he delay the group's progress. He even took the lead and guided the group to work on the details, even though he wasn't the captain.
The practice time for the third round was very tight, especially since each group initially had twelve people, but after elimination, some groups didn't even have seven people left, so they had to be regrouped and the original parts had to be changed. There were only three days left for practice.
After the end of Sam Soon, only five people remained in the promised group, two of whom had come from other groups, meaning they had to start training from scratch.
As luck would have it, both of them were in Li Yuzhe's group.
The two trainees were devastated when they learned they were going to be switched groups, but luckily they met Yingxu.
Despite having a packed schedule of advertising recordings, magazine shoots, and brand live streams, Yingxu quietly learned the dance for each position and taught the two trainees who were forced to switch groups one-on-one from scratch. She even helped design their center position moves.
Lee Yu-cheol is seen as the elder brother among the trainees. Although he is not the oldest, he is a kind-hearted person, and trainees of all ranks like to talk to him. Those who have been in the same group as him all have a good relationship with him.
So after a day of practice, the two trainees spent a full ten minutes praising Yingxu to Li Yuzhe, complimenting him from head to toe.
Li Yuzhe had always thought that Yingxu was a good roommate—down-to-earth, hardworking, and not troublesome. However, firstly, he was very busy with the third public performance, and secondly, they were all popular contestants with a lot of extra work to do, so they spent very little time in the dormitory. Apart from sleeping, they were almost never there, and they never had much opportunity to chat.
After listening to the two trainees finish their promises, Li Yuzhe realized just how energetic his roommate was, still able to provide one-on-one tutoring even when he was so busy.
Li Yuzhe asked himself the question and felt that he couldn't do it.
If it were the first performance or the theme song, I could barely teach him. There weren't many extra recordings back then. But starting from the second performance, there were more and more extra commercial recordings. His own practice time was severely squeezed, so how could he possibly have any spare time to teach others?
But Promise did just that, not even on purpose to be a good person, but simply because he happened to know how to do it. He habitually learned all the positions, so he could teach them.
Li Yuzhe was more than four years older than Ying Xu and had always treated him like a child, but after this incident, he couldn't help but admire him.
So that day, he deliberately delayed going to bed, and after Yingxu returned, he greeted him properly and chatted for a while before going to sleep.
After that, the two became more and more familiar with each other. Although Yingxu seemed distant at first glance, she would take the initiative to share her feelings with Li Yuzhe after they became closer.
Li Yuzhe is a very warm-hearted person. He enjoys being a confidant older brother and helping his younger brothers solve their problems. Now, his two roommates are both very withdrawn, and he is worried that they might develop psychological problems under the high-pressure competition system. He hopes that Li Yuzhe will be willing to take the initiative to consult with them, which would be the best thing.
However, the questions he was promised to ask were always somewhat beyond his capabilities.
Looking at Yingxu sitting blankly by the bed, Li Yuzhe suddenly recalled the question Yingxu had asked him last night: "Brother Li, do you have... someone who gives you a lot of motivation?"
Li Yuzhe had just finished practicing and was exhausted, so he just gave a few perfunctory replies and fell asleep.
Now that he had some free time, he took the initiative to bring up the topic from last night: "Xiao Xu, are you free right now? Let's chat?"
He nodded and continued, "I have the answer to the question you asked me last night. I have it from my parents and my fans."
“Every day here is very tiring, but when I think of them, I feel very happy.”
Upon hearing his answer, Yingxu paused for a moment, then asked, "When you say 'fans,' do you mean all fans, or just a very special one?"
Li Yuzhe was startled and immediately pulled him into the bathroom, whispering, "What's wrong with you? Did you have an affair?"
Yingxu stared blankly at him and shook her head: "No, what do you mean by private contact? Do you mean I have the other person's contact information?"
Li Yuzhe breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest, saying, "That's good. You almost scared me to death."
He then solemnly warned, "You must never have private contact with anyone, you know? That's a capital offense."
Yingxu simply blinked her beautiful peach blossom eyes and nodded obediently, "Oh."
Li Yuzhe suddenly remembered the reason for his promise to ascend to immortality: that video message. Li Yuzhe was so popular that he dared to say that everyone in the factory had seen it, and some had even seen it more than once.
He heard about it from his former roommate, his teammates, and even the staff. He was so curious that he opened his phone to check it out and read it several times in one go.
It's truly captivating; no wonder this video went viral, directly altering the fate of what was promised.
Li Yuzhe has quite a few fan site admins, and he recognizes several of them. He himself has been called out to several times, so he is actually quite familiar with this process.
He had previously made some videos that got a decent number of shares, but those only got a few thousand shares, which is nothing compared to the number of shares promised.
Of course, the topics his fansites were calling out to were quite common, such as inquiring about his practice and physical condition. And it wasn't just him; other trainees in the factory who had fansites had also been called out to, and the content of the calls was basically the same.
The fact that the fan site administrators were able to innovate in this area is truly ingenious.
Or rather, they really put a lot of effort into it.
After that video, Yingxu's trajectory was completely changed, and he jumped into the top ranks, even approaching the center position.
It's fair to say that the fan site admin was a benefactor in Yingxu's training career.
It's normal for Yingxu, who had always been relatively unknown, to develop a bit of a chick complex after suddenly being treated with such care.
But he still had to give him some instructions.
In a flash, Li Yuzhe cleared his mind and said to Yingxu, who was staring blankly again, "Xiao Xu, you've only just started out and don't have much experience yet. For those fans who often come to meet you offline, you can be enthusiastic, but not too enthusiastic, and you can't discriminate. Be enthusiastic only to certain people, understand?"
"Fans' love is actually very pure, but their hearts can change very quickly. Sometimes when they say they will love you forever, it's just because they really like you at that moment, and it doesn't mean they will really follow you forever."
“Especially for fans of talent shows, there are new talent shows every year now, and the people they follow are always the same group of people. It’s very possible that the person who opened a fan site for you this year to say they love you will be following someone else next year. That’s all very normal.”
"No one will participate in talent shows forever, but there will always be new faces in talent shows. Fans are actually very easy to get tired of the old and crave the new."
Yingxu looked completely bewildered, blinked, and said, "Oh, okay, bro."
He scratched his head again, a hint of confusion on his handsome face: "But why are you telling me this? I don't think my fans will always like me. Nobody can guarantee that they'll always like something."
Li Yuzhe's lips twitched. He shouldn't have been so subtle. It turned out this kid didn't realize he was referring to him and that fangirl at all. He sighed and resignedly said:
"What I mean is, if you have fans you care about and feel are special, it's best not to think that way anymore. Put them back in their original place and treat every fan equally. This way, you won't make the fans sad or disappoint yourself."
"Fans are actually very perceptive. They can find out your true situation from all sorts of details and deduce your thoughts. If they sense inconsistency in your attitude, it will be very detrimental to your career."
"Fans will all leave, even those who seem very dedicated, have spent a lot of money, followed you from the very beginning, and attended every single one of your schedules. It's normal for them to change their minds, because people can change all the time."
Li Yuzhe straightened his expression and said, "Although it may sound cruel, it's best not to be too attached to any particular fan, otherwise you'll feel very disappointed when they leave."
When he said this, he was actually thinking about his own past. When he first debuted, he wasn't very famous, but there was a fan who always followed him. She would even go to film his ordinary mall performances. Every time he saw that fan, he would feel very at ease and empowered.
That fan site admin stayed with him from his debut to his being sidelined, through his entire low period, and she was still there when he announced his participation in a talent show.
Because she was a veteran fan site admin, she had a lot of influence in Li Yuzhe's fan circle. New fans blindly followed her. After the theme song was released, his fan base surged as the center of attention. The veteran fan site admin took this opportunity to release her photobook, which contained Li Yuzhe's past schedule.
She was the only one who had these old photos, and she promised that the money she earned would be used for fan support. Fans were all looking for old photos, so they all rushed to buy them, and the photobook sales eventually exceeded 10,000.
As it turned out, the fan site admin ran off with the money. She did ship the goods, but the photobooks she sent were only a few thin pages long and had almost no design, clearly indicating that she was just there to scam money and run away.
Li Yuzhe didn't find out about this for quite a while. At first, he just noticed that the old fan site admin hadn't been to an offline event in a long time, so he thought he'd check on Weibo. But when he opened the super topic, he saw the pinned post criticizing her, and his heart sank to the bottom.
Later, every time he thought about this incident, he couldn't help but wonder if that fan's love for him was genuine. Perhaps it was at the beginning, and even when she accompanied him through his period of being sidelined, but what about after that?
When she heard that he was going to participate in "Shining Idol", that fan site admin must have thought it was too good to be true. Li Yuzhe can finally stand on the stage again.
That's great! I can finally sell my old, long-forgotten images for money on paper.
Li Yuzhe dared not think about it further.
God knows how happy he was to see that old fangirl when he attended the offline audition for "Shining Idol".
The joy, warmth, and comfort he once felt have now turned into sharp, thorny pain, slowly piercing his heart.
Some people might think that idols don't remember their fans, and that all fans look the same to idols. But Li Yuzhe wants to say that's not true. Not everyone doesn't cherish their fans; at least he doesn't.
He remembers the face of every fan who comes to support him offline, and looks forward to seeing familiar faces at the next performance.
However, after the incident involving that fan site manager, he suddenly began to question his past practices. No wonder when he was in contact with colleagues at the company, they always said not to take remembering fans too seriously, to do his job well, to maintain a proper distance from fans, to be enthusiastic towards them but not to get emotionally involved, and that this was the most comfortable state.
After that day, Li Yuzhe pondered for a long time and then quietly changed the view he had always held in his heart.
Perhaps, I really shouldn't have put in so much effort.
That's true. From a fan's perspective, they have many options. They can watch whoever they want. He's just taking himself too seriously, naively believing that the other person will only ever like him. How could that be?
Seeing that Yingxu was about to follow in his footsteps again, Li Yuzhe's first thought was to stop him as soon as possible.
But to everyone's surprise, after he gave both hints and explicit explanations, Yingxu still looked like he didn't quite understand.
"But how do you know she'll definitely leave?" Ying Xu frowned slightly, a rare stubbornness on her face. "Some people just will never change."
Li Yuzhe was amused by this naive remark and shook his head, saying, "There's no such person. As long as someone is human, they're bound to change, let alone when it comes to idol worship. The entertainment industry changes so quickly; who can guarantee they won't switch allegiances?"
Yingxu, however, did not back down, but his brows furrowed even more. He felt that what the other person was saying was not the same thing he was saying: "I don't think it's our place to define this kind of thing."
Li Yuzhe choked up. If someone else had said that, he probably would have been angry. But he knew that was just the other person's personality. He wasn't deliberately contradicting him; he was just very insistent on his own ideas.
He sighed softly and patted the person in front of him on the shoulder: "I know, I'm not trying to define anything, I'm just saying it's a very common phenomenon."
After hesitating for three seconds, he finally stated bluntly, "You care more about the fan site admin who spoke up for you, right?"
Yingxu looked up abruptly, and Li Yuzhe continued with a knowing look: "I just want to say that you shouldn't have too high expectations of anyone. Only you can truly rely on yourself, so just do your best. You don't know when they will leave. The biggest taboo in our line of work is falling in love with a customer*. The best relationship is a cold, transactional one."
Ying Xu was slightly taken aback, then gently pushed Li Yuzhe's hand away and said to him seriously, "Thank you for reminding me, I understand. However, I don't care much about any particular fan, and I wouldn't do that."
“What you just said is something that someone else has said to me before. I didn’t quite agree with her then, so I don’t quite agree with you now either.”
Before Li Yuzhe could lose his temper, Ying Xu stopped him with another sentence. He smiled at the other party and said easily, "I'm not that stupid, don't worry. Thanks for your concern, brother."
After kicking Li Yuzhe out of the toilet, Yingxu turned on the tap, scooped up a handful of water, and gently poured it on his face.
He understood everything Li Yuzhe had just reminded him of. He wasn't stupid; how could he not know that fans would switch allegiances? He wasn't so fragile that he would collapse just because one fan switched allegiances.
But what if some people aren't fans at all?
Yingxu stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror, when another figure gradually appeared before her eyes. After a long while, a helpless smile appeared on her lips.
Fine, if you want to act, then let you act.
After all, she's done so much for him; as long as she's happy, that's all that matters.
...
After Shi Yao replied to that message, there was no further reply from the other party. She simply opened a movie to watch, as she was tired after a long day and wanted to take a break.
Twenty minutes into the movie, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in my head:
[The key supporting character is promised to increase your favorability by 20, raising your total favorability to 100.]
Congratulations on unlocking your first romance target with maxed affection! Side quest one is complete, and the reward has been sent to your inventory. Please check your mail.
Side quest 2 is now available. Please continue to pursue any main character or key supporting character to obtain maximum affection.
award:? ? ? 】
Shi Yao: ?
? ? ?
No, what happened?
Author's note: Sorry everyone for being late, I've been working overtime!
*Played with the "Xingji Love" trope
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-01 20:59:41 and 2024-07-02 22:00:08!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Wenwen (4 bottles); Dilireba (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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