Chapter 99
As the last performance stage since the launch of Dinglian, the program team invested a lot of money in the venue layout and platform promotion. The tickets were sold out within 30 seconds after they went on sale, and the popularity far exceeded that of the previous performances.
Teacher Zhao, as a system, originally wanted to secretly transform into a human form and go to the scene to cheer for his baby. Chu Yu and Luo Jiayu tried to help him get tickets in advance to fulfill his wish. The two of them, two systems, and four pairs of eyes stared at the two mobile phones for a whole night, but their hand speed was still not as fast as other fans. The ticket grabbing failed, and Teacher Zhao left with regret. He could only continue to shrink in Chu Yu's head and draw circles.
Because behind every ticket that was snatched there might be a fan who was crazy about his or her idol, Teacher Zhao felt that he could not use his superpowers to deprive others of the qualification to watch the show on their own; he had already accepted his fate, but in the end Luo Jiayu used his money power to bargain with a scalper and bought a ticket, which he gave to Teacher Zhao, who loved his son dearly.
Teacher Zhao was very touched when she received the tickets and said: "I will definitely give double the gift money when you two get married."
Luo Jiayu agreed immediately: "Okay, I'll let you sit at the main table then."
Chu Yu, who turned around unconsciously, asked: "?"
On the day of the finals, the venue was packed with people. Because the performance had not officially started yet, the stage was still dim. The brightest place in the entire venue became the audience seats. Countless fans waved colorful cheering sticks and light boards, and the swaying starlight gathered together and gradually condensed into a vast sea of fluorescent lights.
A beam of snow-white light fell straight down from the top, and the host slowly descended along with the beam of light. The moment she appeared on the stage represented the official start of tonight's stage. The cheers of fans were louder and louder. The director began to cut the camera into the audience and randomly selected a lucky person to show the banner in her hand.
The first one to arrive randomly was a fan of Prince Ye, holding up a huge golden light board with Wei Ziyu's official cheering message written on it. The fans who shared the same support with this sister immediately started screaming loudly, and the name "Wei Ziyu" soon rang out in the venue.
Then the director changed the camera, and another fan of Jiang Chenglu appeared with a banner. The audience immediately burst into another round of screams, trying to drown out the power of the prince's fans: "Jiang - Cheng - Lu -"
The live broadcast room this time was much more popular than any previous performance. There was almost no moment when the screen was not filled with barrages of comments. The colorful cheering words were like waves, one after another, and from time to time a few complaints and funny comments flashed by quickly along with the cheering words.
[The director definitely had ulterior motives in putting these two names together]
I can’t imagine how grand the scene will be when the shots of Sprayer and Swinger come in.
If the shots of these two trainee fans being placed next to each other could be considered an unintentional act by the director, then his subsequent actions were definitely not innocent.
After a while, a male fan wearing glasses suddenly entered the camera. He was stunned for two seconds after seeing his big face on the screen. Then he reacted and hurriedly took a banner from the girl next to him. He opened it with a swish and saw three majestic characters "Sprayer Brother" written on it.
[I can't hold it in any longer. Why are they still using the Spring Festival couplet style? Is this a match for the previous support from Brother Baizi?]
[Red is so festive]
[Male fan of Sprayer Brother! Are you here to learn how to fight back from Sprayer Brother?]
The girl next to him came over at this time. The two of them looked like a couple. The girl smiled and pulled out the other banner in her hand. The two banners were exactly the same custom-made bright red style, with the same luminous font saying "Brother Baizi" written on them.
At this moment, backstage, a group of trainees who had just finished putting on makeup and changing into their costumes were gathered together watching the live broadcast screen.
Lu Yiyang studied the designs of the two cheering banners intently: "I always feel that this red color and this shape are very familiar, as if I have seen it somewhere."
Xue Liu calmly nudged him and reminded him, "This is the style most people use for weddings."
It just glows.
Lu Yiyang suddenly realized. Song Lai, who happened to be standing next to him, was also very interested in this support banner. The two smart people looked at each other, and at the same time, they felt that something was missing from each other's eyes. It was rare for them to say in unison:
"There's a happy ending in the middle."
Chu Yu had just come out of the dressing room when he was caught off guard by these words. Lu Yiyang quickly saw him and greeted him with a bright look in his eyes, using a name that made his eyes go dark: "Baby Monkey King is here, come and see your fans' support!"
However, before he could react, a huge wave of noise instantly swept from the audience seats in the front all the way to the back. He was stunned for a moment, until Luo Jiayu behind him put his arm around his shoulder, he realized that the noise was shouting "Happiness for a Hundred Years".
In the audience seats in front of the stage, the "sprayer brother" holding the cheering banner was at the top, and the "shaker brother" was at the bottom. The camera paused there for a few seconds, and suddenly a sharp explosion like boiling water was heard in the venue: "Happily ever after!"
This scream was like a fuse, and the whole audience was boiling. Half of them were laughing uncontrollably, while the other half were yelling and screaming along with this Pisces warrior, and even gradually formed a rhythmic wave of sound:
"Brother Spray, Brother Swing, Brother Have a Good Match Forever"
"Brother Spray, Brother Swing, Brother Have a Good Match Forever"
If they stopped any longer, the situation would get out of control. The director cut away the camera at the right time and switched to another fan. Unfortunately, this fan was the Pisces sister who had just screamed. At this moment, the moment this sister saw the camera facing her, she immediately opened her mouth wide and let out the loudest volume she could in her life:
"Brother Baizi, I took some time off to come here and watch you dance! You are not allowed to leave work!"
Not being allowed to leave work means that they are blessing their debut, because they can always have classes after forming a group.
The comments of these two fans were as mean as ever. The people in the venue were first shocked by the counterintuitive soprano voice of this sister. Then the fans began to applaud the heroic deeds of this office worker sister, and the audience was filled with a happy atmosphere for a while.
After screaming this sentence, the sister took two breaths, and then found that the camera was still in front of her. She opened her eyes wide for a moment, took a deep breath, and prepared to open her mouth.
The director also realized this problem at this moment. Just as he was about to switch the camera, he saw that the awesome sister who had just let out two sharp explosions in a row suddenly burst out with huge energy again. At the last second, with her voice that was about to split her legs, she tried her best to let out a scream that was even hoarse and excited than before:
"Pisces is real!"
This time the situation was completely out of control.
This was probably the most harmonious relationship between CP fans and sole fans in the history of Ding Lian. Among the fan bases of Dan Chuyu and Dan Luojiayu, the overlap between the two was surprisingly high. Almost everyone who liked these two had at least partially supported their CP. So, as soon as this sister's scream came out, she immediately attracted a large number of Pisces fans to follow her, and once again fell into the same wave of chants as before, "Happily Ever After."
"Pisces are real..."
"Pisces are real..."
This is the episode where CP fans dance the most.
Even if I am dead and nailed in a coffin, I will shout in my rotten voice in the grave: My CP is real!
Amid waves of enthusiastic cheers, the host began to introduce the list of trainees who would be performing tonight. Every time a name was mentioned, the corresponding avatar would appear on the big screen, and fans in the crowd would correspondingly start to shout his name.
Backstage, Luo Jiayu casually gathered a few teammates together: "Brothers, this is the last stage. After we finish today's performance, we will go home. Come on everyone."
Song Lai stretched and said, "I hope we can all have classes tomorrow."
"Come on, bro."
"Come on, bro."
"Come on, bro."
Several children cheered each other up. Xue Liu patted Chu Yu's shoulder, who was standing aside with a blank look in his eyes. "Come on, Captain."
Chu Yu gave him a thumbs up.
Lu Yiyang clapped his hands and said, "Come on, Monkey King!"
Chu Yu retracted his thumb with a whoosh and was about to make a NO sign when Luo Jiayu, who had just high-fived every teammate, leaped over and hugged him, "Baby, hug me."
So the hand gesture didn't work, and instead he touched his childhood friend's shoulder with his fingers: "Good luck, bro."
Luo Jiayu didn't move: "Baby, hug me."
"..." Chu Yu didn't say anything else, and slowly put his hands around his childhood friend's shoulders.
Okay, then give me a hug.
The twenty contestants were divided into two groups of ten and took the stage one after another. Chu Yu's group was the first and began the stage performance as soon as they appeared on the stage. The lighting, stage design, costumes and props were all available. The dazzling gradient lights were projected on the glittering stage costumes, reflecting a group of leaping and twinkling stars.
The lazy accompaniment music sounded, and Chu Yu found his position and lowered his head. After a while, as the first drum beat sounded, he raised his head.
This was the first time he looked directly at the audience in front of him. He mustered up his courage and practiced many times backstage. He felt a sense of heroic heroism, as if the wind was whistling and the Yi River was cold. He was even prepared for the possibility of going crazy if a social anxiety attack occurred. He originally wanted to find Teacher Zhao to give him courage, but when he really looked straight at the huge crowd in front of him, the first thing he saw was a sea of glittering stars in warm colors.
It was so bright that it made people dizzy, but there was no sense of fear or tension as expected.
The swaying glow sticks replaced people's eyes looking at him. He looked back, like a star looking at the Milky Way that accepted him. The fear and tension he had felt before seemed to finally dissipate gradually at this moment, because he believed how much this galaxy loved and welcomed him.
The subsequent performances went smoothly. When it was the duet part, Luo Jiayu stood in front of him, the bright stage lights reflected in his eyes. He couldn't help but smile at him, and the corners of his mouth and eyes curved into crescent shapes.
One person's smile quickly infected another. Although Chu Yu's smile was not obvious, the moment when the corners of his mouth slightly raised was captured by the fan who was recording the live broadcast in the front row.
Someone in the front row soon screamed, and another famous scene of the century was created. The cover of this candid shot is probably the smile between them under the stage lights.
The set movements had been rehearsed very skillfully long ago, and Chu Yu did not make any mistakes in the dance until the end of the song; as for whether it looked like radio gymnastics, when he was posing while breathing slightly, all he heard were cheers and screams like a surging wave, and almost no laughter, which meant that the fans must have been very engaged in watching it, and the effect was much better than he had imagined.
Ten years of hard work behind the scenes has paid off, Chu Xiaoyu.
Teacher Zhao in the audience had tears in his eyes, and his face was filled with satisfaction that his son had grown up. After raising the child for so long, he finally had a worthwhile ending. After he returned, he could delete the "One Hundred Guidelines for Interacting with Humans".
Amidst the waves of applause, Chu Yu did not leave the stage with regrets this time. Instead, he bowed to express his gratitude happily with his teammates, shining with confidence, and then left the stage in high spirits.
"Well done, brothers!" As soon as they got off the stage, several teammates high-fived each other. The costume designer quickly came over and urged them to change clothes and put on makeup, preparing for the most important ranking announcement.
It was at this moment that a solemnity, different from the previous cheerful atmosphere, quietly began to spread.
"I must debut." Xiao Lu clenched his fist and looked at the ceiling with hope. "If I can successfully debut, I will never touch Lao Gan Ma again. Xue Liu, remember to supervise me."
Luo Jiayu tilted her head to remove her earrings, and as she did so, she heard Song Lai, who was not far away, praying devoutly to the air with her eyes closed and hands clasped together: "Please, I am willing to be a vegetarian for the rest of my life in exchange for me being in the group for two years."
...Why do these people swear that everything is related to food?
"Hurry up and make a wish with piety. The Bodhisattva is watching us." While praying, Song Lai did not forget to use his elbow to remind his beloved disciple.
"Okay." Luo Jiayu tilted his head to think about it, then clasped his hands together cheerfully. "Xinnan, I wish you a life of luxury, luxury cars and villas in exchange for my successful debut."
Song Lai rolled his eyes and said, "Even the Bodhisattva wants to give you a slap in the face after hearing that."
Seeing that his beloved disciple was hopeless, Song Lai shook her head and chose to go find his young boyfriend.
Chu Yu blinked, and after listening to the prayers of the two believers in succession, she tilted her head to think about it, and then she obediently followed suit, clasped her hands together, and made a proper wish.
"I'm willing to spend the rest of my life maintaining a stable mental state..." He imitated Song Lai and looked up at the high ceiling. He happened to be facing the bright white light source. He closed his eyes as if blinded by the glare, which made him look even more compassionate. "In exchange for everyone's successful debut."
"Baby, you are indeed everyone's baby." Lu Yiyang was very moved.
"But it seems like you don't have anything to exchange for it." Xue Liu questioned.
Only Luo Jiayu curled the corners of his mouth, he understood his boyfriend's hidden meaning.
Before going on stage again, a few people gathered together for a final pep talk and farewell. They linked shoulders and held hands. After everyone finished speaking, it was Luo Jiayu's turn. He patted his boyfriend's shoulder and said, "We will miss you."
"What do you mean?" The others didn't react.
Someone shouted loudly: "I wish everyone a successful debut!"
Others followed suit and shouted, "I wish everyone a successful debut!"
"good!"
After the two groups' performances were over, with the temporary exit of the last trainee, the lights suddenly dimmed. In the darkness, after a few seconds of silence, the host returned to the stage and began the most important, most anticipated, and final segment of the night.
Eleven chairs were set up at the highest point of the entire venue, and a long red carpet was laid along the steps leading to the debut positions, starting from the glittering C-position chair at the top and all the way to the feet of every nervous trainee in front of the stage.
Twenty trainees lined up in a row, like twenty believers about to be judged by fate. They stood at the foot of the stairs and looked up at the eleven chairs high up. Some of their eyes were filled with desire, some with uneasiness, some with confidence... and some with peace of mind.
A certain Capybara was not among the anxious trainees. Chu Yu's expression was so peaceful that it seemed as if he could fall into a deep sleep in the next second, just like when he finally crossed the finish line of a 1,000-meter race in high school. The result was not important, the most important thing was to finish the race.
A calm warmth and softness slowly rippled through Capibara's heart at this moment.
It’s great to have come here.
It’s great to have reached the end.
It ended in a happy ending, so nice.
...and I also got a boyfriend, which is great.
"We've already spent a hundred days since the show began. These hundred days have been filled with laughter, touching moments, and tears. Today is the final stop on this journey. Who will be able to stand on this final stage and sit on the eleven chairs representing the debut spots?"
After the host finished speaking, he waved the cue card in his hand and said, "Next, I will announce the list."
The lights changed and intensified at the right time, making the already eye-catching eleven chairs even more dazzling and conspicuous. Cheers broke out from the crowd, with the names of countless trainees mixed in, and each cheer represented the support of the fans behind them.
"First, I will announce the eleventh place winner of this group."
...One after another, former colleagues were called out and climbed the stairs to welcome the shining future that belonged to them. Every time a name was read out by the host, it was accompanied by a thunderous and enthusiastic cheer from the audience. Chu Yu could also hear many people shouting his name, followed by a loud "No. 1".
Chu Yu raised his head in a trance and saw the chair at the top sitting quietly high up. The light falling from it seemed to sprinkle on his hair.
As the rankings got higher and higher, the steps each trainee had to climb became higher and higher. By the time Jiang Chenglu, who was ranked fourth, got his turn, all the chairs on the steps in front of him had already been occupied by their owners, leaving only the three debut chairs at the top, representing the top three, vacant.
At the same time, there were only a few trainees left in front of the stage. The most eye-catching ones were the three who were ranked in the last performance. Wei Ziyu stood in the middle, with Chu Yu and Luo Jiayu on both sides of him. The Cowherd and Weaver Girl Galaxy Legend was staged again.
Wei Ziyu watched his partner walk up the stairs, frowned slightly and coughed twice. Although he didn't say that he was in a hurry, everyone knew that he was in a hurry.
"When he first appeared, he presented himself as a cool and handsome character. His unusual background may have caused some controversy, but in the end, he changed everyone's opinion with his outstanding strength..."
Hearing this, Luo Jiayu subconsciously started to take out his sunglasses, and then he remembered that his performance clothes had no pockets to hold sunglasses.
"He is Wei Ziyu! Congratulations on winning third place!"
The fans burst into screams. As the middleman left and walked towards the stairs leading to the debut position, Chu Yu and Luo Jiayu stood together again without realizing it. The former was clapping slowly in the direction where the prince left. He probably didn't even notice that the rhythm of his applause was eight beats slower than the average applause; the latter looked calm and composed, and even wanted to shake his head proudly at the air.
The two people first stood straight facing forward. After a few seconds, they seemed to notice something and quickly glanced at each other, again and again, until they looked at each other.
Luo Jiayu winked at him.
When they were young, they developed a special code that used blinking to convey messages. They often used it to communicate remotely during class. Chu Yu still remembers it.
So, in full view of the crowd, surrounded by bright lights, two children were having a quiet conversation that only they knew about, like the message sent by ants with their antennae that only their own kind could feel.
Chu Yu read what Luo Jiayu wanted to say from the frequency and rhythm of his blinking:
——Let’s go out for dinner together after get off work.
Chu Yu squeezed his left eye hard and blinked his right eye.
——Okay. Which one should we eat at?
Luo Jiayu looked at him for a few seconds before continuing to send messages using their special wink signal.
——Eat at the restaurant in front of the high school.
"He is undoubtedly the strongest rapper. He 'dropped in' mid-stream, yet left a lasting impression on us with his brilliant performances at every show. Everyone who meets him is moved by his confidence and outspokenness. I believe he will bring us even more surprises in the future..."
"Congratulations, Luo Jiayu, for winning the second place in this group's debut."
Luo Jiayu hooked the little finger of the person next to him and whispered, "I'll wait for you upstairs."
The road from the front of the stairs to the top was very long, with a long red carpet laid along the way. Every time a step was passed, gold powder would fall on the clothes and shoulders. These were all observed by Chu Yu after Luo Jiayu walked up.
The host didn't speak again until the person in front walked to his or her chair and sat down.
"Finally, I will announce the first place for this group's debut. Who will be the first place?"
Now Chu Yu was the only one left on the stage. He stared blankly at the red carpet, the gold powder stuck to the carpet fibers, and his long shadow reflected on the stage.
"He is the one whose name makes each of us smile when we hear it."
When the audience heard this, many people started to boo and laugh. The Pisces sister who had just screamed "Happily Ever After" stood up, took a deep breath, and yelled, "Bang!"
Then he was pulled to sit down by the audience next to him.
The onlookers laughed even more happily, and some even shouted at the lady at the top of their lungs to "calm down".
The host couldn't help but laugh. "He's completely unknowingly become everyone's happy pill on the show. Just one look at him and a bad mood of the day is completely swept away. He has that 'melancholy handsome guy' aura that's unique to Dinglian, but after spending time with him, you'll find that his greatest characteristic is his cuteness. Although he secretly 'says' that he doesn't want to work hard, every performance he performs on stage is a near-perfect performance..."
At this point, it couldn't be more obvious. The name of those two words was about to come out. In fact, the voices in the entire venue had converged into a single wave, so enthusiastic that it was about to break through the entire ceiling.
Chu Yu stared blankly at the host next to him, blinking his eyes again and again.
"He's Chu Yu!" the host said with a smile. He turned around and met the young trainee's blank gaze. "Chu Yu, is there anything you want to say?"
The microphone was handed to him, and Chu Yu opened his mouth in a daze: "I—" Then he was startled by his own distorted voice. Then the "I" quickly spread throughout the audience, and the echo in his ears startled him again. The microphone almost slipped out of his hand. He frantically adjusted the microphone and voice. After he stood back, he spoke again: "I have a lot of words to say in my introduction."
This was probably the longest sentence he had ever said in front of the camera. The audience and his teammates on the stairs burst into laughter, followed by encouraging cheers and applause. The microphone covered half of Chu Yu's face, revealing only a pair of eyes with light-colored contact lenses. His eyes turned inadvertently and subconsciously looked up, meeting Luo Jiayu's gaze as he stood up from his chair. The light-colored eyes easily let in light, and from the perspective on the stairs, the person he liked had bright eyes and was bathed in soft light.
"It all feels like a dream."
Chu Yu spoke slowly, word by word. Thousands of eyes were watching him at this moment. The noise and cheer just now gradually quieted down after he opened his mouth. Everyone turned into listeners, listening to the voice of the child in front of them. The sensitive child felt the kindness and was no longer nervous.
"I often had nightmares when I was a child, but this time, everything was just a beautiful dream."
Chu Yu closed his eyes in despair as he spoke. Although he was only twenty years old, he spoke as slowly as a centenarian undergoing speech rehabilitation in front of thousands of people. How could he not have noticed this before? "I..."
"Speak slowly, everyone is listening." The host gently comforted him, turned around and said loudly to the audience, "Don't you agree?"
The crowd yelled, “Yes!”
"...Actually, I don't know how to express this feeling." The process of expressing himself was like threading a needle, the fragmented words in his mind being sorted out bit by bit until he could speak fluently. "I never thought I would get so much attention. I never thought so many people would like me like this."
"I think, even though I'm feeling depressed..." Chu Yu said this, and the fans laughed kindly. This time, their laughter infected the main character, and Chu Yu also curled her eyes. "But I feel very lucky to be able to bring you happiness and joy."
When he said this, he bowed deeply to the audience and handed the microphone back to the host. He saw some fans crying in the front row, and he wanted to walk over, bend down, and comfort them, telling them not to cry. However, his social anxiety reminded him that the courage required to do so was far beyond his capacity. But at the same time, he found that he actually had the desire to actively communicate with humans.
It turns out that the world is not as scary as he thought. There is still kindness, people who will give you warmth, and lots and lots of love.
Could he try, little by little, to open his arms to the world and welcome it?
"Okay, next, please invite member Chu Yu to climb the stairs and walk to your debut position."
He saw the shadow under his feet. The end of the shadow extended forward in his consciousness until it merged with the only chair at the top. Then it was illuminated by the scorching light. From then on, the shadow was as bright as day.
There was a long red carpet laid from the bottom to the top of the stairs. He had just seen it, but the feeling of actually walking on it was completely different from just looking at it. The texture of the carpet was very good, and in addition to gold powder, there were also flower petals falling from the sky. Chu Yu narrowed his eyes, and for a moment he wanted to say why this place looked so much like the decoration of a wedding scene.
Some gold powder stuck to his eyelashes, and his vision was blurred for a moment by the dazzle of the light. In a trance, he saw a figure running straight down from the top stairs and rushing over to hug him.
"This red carpet looks like the one used at a wedding, don't you think?" Because the headset was removed, the noise at the scene was deafening. Luo Jiayu had to speak loudly so that Chu Yu could hear him, but it was precisely this loudness that made their communication different from any previous times when they whispered to each other.
"Congratulations on your debut." This time the voice was a little softer. Chu Yu read these words from the mouth shape of the person in front of him. After Luo Jiayu finished speaking, he held the person tightly in his arms.
Chu Yu smiled. He realized that what was blurring his vision wasn't actually gold dust, but a transparent liquid flowing from the corners of his eyes. Tears fell onto the carpet, but the traces left on his face were warm. "Happy debut."
-END-
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
