Chapter 119: Going to the Group Night
All six of them were wearing black silk shirts, with slightly different styles, which reflected a dim light under the stage lights.
Before opening "The Fifth Epoch", Su Rong had never seen the stage of the training system.
Influenced by the occasional clips of the development system she saw, in her mind, the development system has always been an image of underage children exuding childishness, wearing cute clothes on the stage, singing and dancing nursery rhymes.
Therefore, as a girl who has always been in the Korean entertainment industry, she has some subtle disdain for the training system.
Children's performance? Who's watching?
But after watching the show, she realized how wrong she was.
It is true that they are underage, but teenagers in adolescence have long shed their childishness and exude a temperament that is between maturity and immaturity.
They have understood the rules of the world and have begun to explore it cautiously. There are many sufferings in the outside world, but they have the courage that adults have long been worn away by society.
Faced with those hardships, they understand and know, but they are able to face them very bravely.
This courage and strength may be the most precious things in a young person.
Regardless of gender, only at this age can one truly shine.
Su Rong herself is of the same age, so she can understand the current mood of many trainees in the show just by looking at their behaviors.
This was a feeling she had never experienced before when watching her own drama or other programs.
Just like the various performances of the trainees in the talent shows that she used to care about, she doesn't like those hypocritical people and hates those who whitewash the truth, but is such hypocrisy and whitewashing really what those trainees want to do?
Don’t they want to speak their minds loudly to the camera and fight for their own interests?
They wanted to, but they didn't dare.
Su Rong's mind understood why they didn't dare to do so, but her emotions could not accept such behavior.
So when she watched those programs, she always felt awkward, uncomfortable, and always felt that something was missing.
But watching "The Fifth Era," whether it's the trainees' straightforward words in interviews, or their actions in striving to be on the same team despite conflicts, or their passion for losing eight pounds in a week and training from morning till night just for a stage...
These are things that can only be done at this age when you are confused, full of courage to fight the world, and willing to give everything for your dreams.
Looking at them, Su Rong gradually remembered that she was only twenty years old.
She should be so high-spirited, doing what she wants to do and saying what she wants to say, instead of being full of compromises everywhere.
Why compromise?
She had nothing to lose.
Just like the trainees on the stage, all we have to do is work towards our goals.
The stage presented in such an environment may not be as mature and exquisite as Su Rong's original performance, nor as neat and unified as those of the new groups, but Su Rong can see everyone on the stage and see the burning light in their eyes.
Su Rong felt that perhaps this was the unique feature of the training system.
Free from the systematic corporate packaging and without all the rules and regulations, they grow freely in front of the camera and have completely different styles on stage.
"Original" was a song released eight years ago. At that time, Su Rong was just a student who had just entered junior high school. One time, she heard this song on the campus radio, and Su Rong fell in love with it at once.
From then on, she knew her true love.
She began to spend a lot of time collecting their information, watching their variety shows, and listening to their new songs.
Su Rong was fascinated by them.
For their enigmatic smiles, insightful interviews, and excellent music.
Almost every detail is perfect.
For many years thereafter, Su Rong did not have much free time due to academic problems. Whatever free time he had, he would use it to pay attention to his significant other. Gradually, this liking seemed to become a habit.
It was not until she went to college that Su Rong had more time and began to gradually get to know the group she had liked for many years.
There are indeed a lot of things accumulated over the years, and Su Rong has never seen many of them, but as he looked at them, Su Rong felt a little uncomfortable.
She sometimes felt as if she didn't recognize the idol she had loved for so many years.
But how is this possible?
She watched so many of their variety shows and interviews, and even quoted something from a member in her junior high school essay.
She can tell you the birthday, hometown, zodiac sign, favorite food, and favorite color of every member of the group. She understands them better than she understands herself.
How could she not understand this group of people?
But a brief moment of self-deception cannot change the facts.
After gaining a deeper understanding and learning more about the entertainment industry, Su Rong immediately understood the reason for her awkwardness.
She really didn't understand these idols whom she had loved for eight years.
Birthday, hometown, zodiac sign... these are all objective facts.
But the reason why a person can attract others is not based on these, but on his thoughts, his personality, and his charm.
But in Su Rong's long youth, she had never seen the thoughts of these people.
What she listens to are songs carefully produced by the company and sung by members, what she watches are variety shows specially planned by screenwriters to enhance the characters, and what she quotes are scripts written in advance and memorized by members.
So who does she love?
Is it the idols themselves, or the staff who have devoted countless time and energy behind these idols?
After thinking about this, Su Rong's view on star chasing changed drastically.
Her idol is still her idol, but she is no longer a fanatical fan who only follows her idol.
She began to hang out with different groups and appear in various variety shows, spreading her love to every new group.
She began to love those appearances and no longer tried to understand the truth beneath the beautiful appearance.
Then she soon discovered that each combination was no different from the original one she had eight years ago.
Whether it's the smile in front of the camera, the words spoken in the interview, or the seemingly natural interaction in the variety show, each one is filled with carefully designed beauty.
The gorgeous cake is indeed sweet and delicious at first, but if you eat a few more bites, you will soon feel sick of it.
So she was always bored.
The music started and the trainees on the stage began their performance.
The melody of "Original" clearly reached Su Rong's ears, and the stage she had seen countless times seemed to appear before her eyes.
She was wearing a black suit with hollowed-out details, and a casual smile appeared behind her glance at the camera. As she danced, her chest and abdominal muscles were faintly visible under the wide neckline. As the audience screamed, she lightly lifted the microphone and sang the lyrics in a low and magnetic voice.
Exuding the charm of a mature man.
And now in the tablet screen, the young man standing in front of the camera is wearing a smooth shirt, with every button from the cuffs to the collar buttoned meticulously, without any skin exposed. He looks up at the camera, with a smile full of youthful spirit under his clear eyes.
Positive, sunny, as if everything is back to the way it was before.
When he spoke again, the clear voice slipped into his mind and pierced Su Rong's heart.
Mom, this time seems really different.
Su Rong burst into laughter.
When the song ended, even though they were in the dormitory, Su Rong couldn't help but applaud the tablet.
Some basic literacy from the audience.
It is both an encouragement for an excellent performance and an expression of one's own emotions.
The mentors in the show began to comment.
Yan Er's face was filled with obvious surprise: "You performed very well."
Su Rong nodded repeatedly.
Yes, very well performed.
And this goodness is very different.
The last group to perform, Qiao Sinian, also performed very well, but that was only good for themselves.
They completed their stage completely and correctly, but there was nothing more to it.
The singing is not bad, the dancing is not bad, and there are even one or two slightly amazing lyrics and a short impressive dance. However, in the long four-minute stage, these few seconds of clip can only leave a passable impression.
This is a qualified stage, but far from an excellent one.
But the Qiu Yuge group, who had just finished their performance...
Su Rong raised her hand and touched her arm. It had already returned to smoothness, but she seemed to still remember the feeling of being electrocuted, which gave her goose bumps.
It was the same feeling she had when she first saw this stage eight years ago.
The neatly arranged sword dance group raised their hands and shook their shoulders with every drum beat, and stomped their feet and raised their legs with every pause.
Neat, extremely neat.
Even the simplest movements, because they are performed in unison as if by one person, exude a shocking feeling that goes straight to the heart.
This was the shock Su Rong felt when she watched "Original" for the first time, but later, perhaps because the members were getting older, or perhaps because they were becoming more and more popular, they were busy with work and neglected to practice, so from then until the current stage, Su Rong never felt such a shock again.
Unexpectedly, eight years later, she saw her original intention of chasing stars again in a training variety show that she accidentally clicked on.
Yan'er's comments ended in the program, and Mao Ankang's comments followed.
The central idea is very similar to Yan Er's, and they are almost praising each other.
But it is true that from Su Rong's perspective of viewing various stages, this stage can be considered excellent.
After the audience finished scoring, the teenagers on the stage bowed and thanked the contestants before leaving the stage, and then the next group of contestants came on stage to perform.
But Su Rong's attention unconsciously flew away.
Not only am I still thinking about the previous group's performance, but I can't help but compare it with this group's performance.
For example, during practice, everyone in Qiu Yuge's group practiced very actively and did not need to be urged, but when Wang Mingzhi's group practiced, they always stopped in the middle of practice. Of course, it is not to say that they did not practice or were negligent in practice, but if the score was given, if the previous group scored 100 points, their group would only score 80 points.
Eighty points is already very high, but compared with 100 points, it seems not enough.
The same was true on the stage. Wang Mingzhi's group completed their performance without any mistakes, and their smiles were very bright. Everyone tried their best to show their best in front of the camera.
But the same thing goes, compared to a 100-point stage, a 60-point stage is just failing.
The gap is so big that it seems bland and boring.
Su Rong watched the performance attentively and half-heartedly until the end of the show. The difference from the past was that this time the voting results were announced on the spot after all the stages were finished, without waiting until the next episode.
Before Su Rong had time to wonder, she heard the host announce that all performances of "The Fifth Epoch" had ended, and the next one would be the trainees' final stage - the night of the group formation.
As the barrage of words scrolled past, Su Rong opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Is this the end? Only three performances and eight episodes have passed?
But no matter how surprised she was, it couldn't change the fact that it was over. After the song "The Fifth Anniversary Album" sounded, Su Rong picked up her phone and opened Weibo. She saw the topic #EighthEpisode# on the hot search list at a glance, followed by #GroupNight#. An intuition told her that this must be the hot search of the Fifth Era.
When she clicked on it, as expected, who else could it be but the trainees she was familiar with?
She went out again and checked the hot search list. After watching the show, she found that a small half of the hot search list was related to the Fifth Epoch.
Su Rong was shocked.
Before she watched the show, she thought that everywhere was just big marketing for the Fifth Epoch, and the words "Fifth Epoch" could be seen everywhere. But after watching the show, she found that the presence of the Fifth Epoch was stronger than she had imagined. The names that she was not familiar with before, now when she looked at them, weren't they all from the Fifth Epoch?
With so many trending searches, how much does it cost?
Su Rong was shocked, and couldn't help but wonder if all these trending searches were really just marketing? After all, there were indeed too many of them. If they really cost money, the number would be terrifying just by thinking about it.
But if it weren't for marketing, how popular would this show be?
It seems that no one is watching her.
Su Rong raised his arms to stretch his body, and when he turned his head, he saw the familiar screens on his roommates' computers.
If it wasn't the eighth issue of "The Fifth Epoch" that she was just reading, what was it?
"You are watching this show too?" Su Rong was shocked and couldn't believe it.
Living under the same roof, she had no idea her roommates were watching too.
"Yeah." My roommate turned around and said, "I started watching it last month. It's pretty good."
"I didn't expect you were watching too. Don't you say you don't watch domestic entertainment?" another roommate turned around.
"Are you guys going to the group formation night?" The roommate lying on the bed also poked his head out from the upper bunk.
Su Rong: ...
Wow, everyone is watching.
She is out of date.
So is the marketing in the Fifth Age really not marketing, but real popularity?
Su Rong didn't know whether the news about the Fifth Era that she had seen on the homepage was marketing or not, but after her roommate suggested that they go to watch the group's formation night, she did see the popularity of the Fifth Era.
Because tickets for the Fifth Epoch Coming-of-Age Night were not sold to the public, the several ticket agencies that Su Rongqian asked all quoted sky-high prices for the tickets that Su Rong could not even imagine.
That’s it, and it’s just a ticket for the stands.
What is this doing?
These scalpers could clearly reach into her pocket and steal her money, yet they actually gave her a ticket?
Su Rong felt that the world might be crazy.
So Su Rong quickly gave up the idea of going to the group formation night.
The ticket price is so expensive, I might as well not go.
However, Su Rong still retweeted a lot of Weibo posts about the ticket draw.
Just seeing those posts with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of reposts, Su Rong could only sigh.
Where do so many people come from?
But this time, she no longer had any doubts about the popularity of "The Fifth Epoch".
After a pleasant and relaxing weekend, Su Rong ushered in a busy week.
Her professional schedule is very full. She has to attend classes every day and complete a lot of homework after classes. So even though she has just finished watching the show, Su Rong has long been accustomed to placing her idols in her years of star-chasing experience.
The music coming from the headphones is what always accompanies her.
So after returning to the dormitory from the library just as the lights-out bell rang, Su Rong learned that she had won the prize amid the cheers of her roommates.
It was already Thursday, and there were only three days left until the group's formation night on Sunday. The major lottery sites had been holding prize draws one after another during these two days. Her roommates were squatting under each lottery site, waiting for a ticket with a slim chance of winning.
In the end, he didn't wait for his own name, but waited for Su Rong's name.
Su Rong hadn't reacted yet, but she had already quickly taken out her cell phone and opened her Weibo homepage, which was filled with a series of lottery blogs, all of which were proof of her hard work in the past few days.
And now, her message notification column, with 99+ messages, shows her presence.
When you click on it, a dense network of messages pops up instantly.
"Teacher, are the tickets for the group's debut night available?"
"Wow, teacher, you won the prize!!!"
'Rub, rub, rub'
Su Rong searched for a long time before finding the information about the lottery blog.
She read the Weibo post several times before she confirmed that she had really won the prize.
"Ahhhhhh, I won!" Happy, so happy.
After being happy, Su Rong looked up and saw the faces of her roommates.
"Are you going?"
Are you going? Of course——
Go!
As soon as the get out of class was over on Friday, Su Rong pulled his suitcase and boarded a train heading straight to Pingcheng.
After years of chasing stars, this is her first time chasing stars offline.
Why didn’t you think about pursuing offline before?
Maybe she was used to the distance between people on and off the screen, or maybe her love was too shallow, or maybe her studies were too heavy... But no matter what, Su Rong was very excited when she pursued someone offline for the first time. She was holding the computer and doing her homework. While doing it, she would laugh inexplicably happily.
At noon the next day, Su Rong arrived at the unfamiliar Pingcheng.
She arrived at the hotel she had booked, washed up briefly, and then went out to stroll around Pingcheng with her small bag.
She had read the Pingcheng travel guide online in advance and wrote down the attractions she wanted to visit. Now she visited them one by one according to the plan and felt very happy.
I returned to the hotel in the evening, did some of my homework, and went to bed early. I got up early the next day and went out to explore Pingcheng again.
Since I have come all the way here, I must shop around to get my money's worth.
It was not until five o'clock in the afternoon that Su Rong took the subway and rushed to the venue for the group's night performance.
The live broadcast will start at 7 o'clock. According to Su Rong's plan, she will arrive at the venue at 6 o'clock, reserving an hour to deal with emergencies.
There's still time.
Things went just as Su Rong had arranged. At 5:55, she left the subway station and saw the stadium where the group night would be held from afar.
The large advertising screens inside the subway station are filled with cheers for the trainees, and the trainees’ faces are also featured on the wall posters outside the subway station.
Su Rong looked around and saw traces of the show everywhere.
She followed the navigation and walked forward. She was clearly very close to the venue, but there were not many people around. If it weren't for the occasional sight of some beautifully dressed young girls, she would have thought she had taken the wrong road.
After walking around a long bend, without the obstruction of buildings, the scene in front of Su Rong finally became lively.
There are countless flags fluttering in the wind on the roadside, with the faces and names of trainees on them. The flower wall surrounded by flowers not far away is an exquisite and complex beauty.
There were many tents. When Su Rong passed by, he could see the names of the trainees written on the tents.
Just like Peter Pan flying into the sky for the first time, Su Rong felt like he had completely entered a strange world.
There were young girls all around, wearing beautiful dresses, gorgeous makeup, and carrying bags covered with dolls and cards. Through the transparent film, Su Rong could see photos of different trainees.
Exquisitely decorated in this layer of transparent film, it is both beauty and love.
She also saw a girl squatting on the side of the road, nonchalantly lifting up her skirt to wrap strips of tape around her legs. Next to her, a friend was helping her wrap the tape.
Su Rong looked left and right, and every look was a new world.
Amazing.
Su Rong realized later that she seemed to have come too late.
These tents and flower walls were obviously for special activities, but now there was no one in these places. Everyone was entering or preparing to enter, and she herself did not have much time to stay.
After taking a quick look outside, Su Rong took out her ID card from her small bag and started checking her ticket to enter.
Everything went smoothly. Su Rong's small bag contained only a pack of tissues, a bottle of water, her cell phone and a power bank, nothing else.
The girl behind her was carrying a big bag. After passing the security check machine, the staff took out the things in her bag one by one and checked them. The level of detail surprised Su Rong.
However, although she was surprised, there were too many things that surprised Su Rong today. She didn't look at it for long. After passing the security check, she scanned her ID card to enter, and then began to find her route according to her seat.
The ticket Su Rong won in the lottery was for Area C in the inner field. After standing at the entrance of the venue for a long time, Su Rong saw the sign for the inner field seats and followed it.
From the time she got off the subway until now, she had clearly done nothing and hadn't wasted any time, but when Su Rong looked at the time, she realized it was already past six twenty and she hadn't even reached her seat.
Although she should have made it in time, Su Rong felt a little regretful. She still remembered the beautiful cheering girls outside the venue. She should have come earlier and gone to take a look.
After walking for another five minutes, Su Rong finally saw the entrance gate. The staff verified her seat number and put a wristband on her. She walked forward through the dark passage, and the spacious venue appeared in front of her.
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