Xu Ling skipped through every part she had already seen and moved the video to the classic dormitory segment.
This was the kind of scene audiences loved to see. Interactions between pretty girls always sparked anticipation.
What surprised Xu Ling was that during the dormitory segment, Chu Yuanqing and her roommates had quite a lot of screen time.
The Bullet Comments shifted accordingly:
"Yay, it's Qing Bao! Mommy loves you???!"
"So cute, wifey! Marry me???!"
"Qing Bao and Xie Qingxuan are in the same dorm? Damn, I'm starting to worry. She won't get bullied, right?"
"Can you stop forcing the hate? The Great Demon King having a strong presence doesn't mean she's rude."
"Damn it, why isn't there any Little Sakura?"
"Liuli is in the same dorm too? No wonder she kept looking at Chu Yuanqing during the theme song."
"I'm dying, she's totally secretly crushing on her."
"Damn, Liang Xiaoxiao is the last one. This dorm has A, B, C, and D all together, everyone. What kind of Talent Show spectacle is this?!"
This kind of dorm assignment really was a Talent Show spectacle.
Normally, dormitories in Talent Shows were assigned according to rank. There was no way contestants from the top ranks would live together with contestants from the lower ranks.
First, it emphasized the gap between ranks and created an atmosphere of tension and anxiety.
Second, if they were simply mixed together, the top-ranked contestants could easily end up passively carrying the lower-ranked ones, provoking the collective outrage of fans of popular contestants.
But with Flash Dance, it was hard to say.
After learning about the differences in privileges between each rank, viewers had no way to call it unfair. They even said that the low-ranked trainees in those dorms were miserable—what was the difference between forcing an ordinary commoner to watch an emperor live in luxury every day?
It was pure fuel-on-the-fire pressure and wolf-pack culture, all meant to force the contestants to compete like their lives depended on it.
So the dorm assignments did not stir up much controversy.
Xu Ling skipped all the training segments first, precisely locking onto every clip of intimate interactions. The curve of her lips rose higher the more she watched. Sometimes she could not help pummeling the dinosaur plush in her arms; other times, she took huge gulps of sparkling wine, her face full of a delighted auntie smile.
The Bullet Comments in the video changed as well:
"The Great Demon King is so polite and well-behaved. Is this what she's like in private? The contrast is off the charts. I want to pinch her."
"Qing Bao really knows how to balance things out. She blow-dried Xie Qingxuan's hair, accompanied Liang Xiaoxiao to eat, and read Hugo's fairy tales to Tang Liuli. How do I put this? She feels so much like a mom!"
"That's true. Isn't she the youngest? But she's so mature, and she can't help taking care of people."
"My verdict: kindergarten principal."
"Slurp slurp, Qing Bao's contrast is absolutely incredible! Young yet mature, serious yet easily embarrassed, full of that everyday-life feeling, and she even likes taking care of people. She has such a strong young-wife vibe! Hehehe, I'm rising to the stars???!"
"Damn it, if you can't keep your panties on, then don't wear them. You must be punished???!"
The first episode was split into two parts, totaling 200 minutes.
The opening introductions and stage evaluations took up around ninety minutes.
The remaining 110 minutes covered the dormitory situation, introductions to the practice rooms of each rank, and training updates edited by practice room. Every so often, it also inserted daily-life footage meant to tempt viewers into shipping CPs.
Because overly mediocre stages and performances were ruthlessly cut in post-production, many of the 101 contestants in the first round had less than thirty seconds of screen time.
So the ones who were kept were basically all highlights worth watching.
Chu Yuanqing's stage being kept at all was entirely due to the buffs from her two debut performances stacking together.
In this situation, the momentum and anticipation naturally came wave after wave. If viewers had not watched the livestream beforehand, they would not have wanted to touch the progress bar at all.
The video's Bullet Comments, various small chat groups, Tieba, and Weibo fan communities all keenly noticed the brand new CPs emerging from it:
"Did you notice? The other three contestants besides Chu Yuanqing aren't familiar with each other. In the edited video, they don't even look at or speak to one another, yet the dorm's overall atmosphere is great. It looks so harmonious."
"Damn, that's true. So Chu Yuanqing is individually having different chemical reactions with all three of them?"
"I can't take it anymore! Why does Qing Bao have CP chemistry with everyone? Little Wangshu, the Great Demon King, Liuli, Little Sakura, Xiaoxiao—use Qing Bao as the base ingredient, and any combination is shippable."
"Hehehe, if you put it that way, the chaotic all-in-one shipping addicts are coming???!"
"Heh, as a Solo Fan, I don't care. Myriad Female King it is. As long as Qing Bao isn't tied down to anyone, the remaining girls are nothing but human-shaped blood bags???!"
This trend of chaotic CP shipping did not trigger backlash from the stars' own fans.
The reason was simple.
Flash Dance was a survival Talent Show gathering 168 contestants. If screen time were distributed evenly, each person would appear for less than forty-five seconds in an episode.
It was fine when only 101 contestants appeared in the first episode, but once the other sixty-seven joined, the competition for screen time would only become fiercer.
Even someone as popular as Xie Qingxuan would find it extremely difficult to dominate in that regard.
In this situation, the smartest approach was to form a small group—preferably one where they had chemistry with each other and viewers enjoyed watching their interactions.
As long as they succeeded, the combined popularity of several people would win them more screen time. Since they could appear together as well, their overall footage in the show would become quite abundant.
Chu Yuanqing's dormitory daily life being edited into the program proved that this method was indeed effective.
Under such premise, who would be dissatisfied with Chu Yuanqing?
She was not only the link connecting everyone, but also the driving force behind the interactions worth watching.
Their own favorite had benefited without being tied up and drained by the other party. It was mutual benefit in the truest sense, so the atmosphere of discussion was naturally quite friendly.
And encouraged by this environment, before the program had even finished airing, some people could not wait to go to Weibo and create a whole bunch of new CP fan communities.
Because the scene of Chu Yuanqing blow-drying Xie Qingxuan's hair looked incredibly affectionate and hit a lot of people's sweet spots, the CP fan community for those two appeared first. It was called Qing Cheng Qing Guo—Beauty That Topples Cities and Nations.
Tang Liuli came next. Her CP name with Chu Yuanqing was Qing Ci Li Qu—A Clear Farewell, a Beautiful Melody.
Although it was a step behind, hints had already appeared in the livestream. The fan community had only been created for a few minutes, yet it was immediately filled with fanfiction that had previously circulated in small chat groups.
Well, to summarize the premise: a socially anxious, irritable, gloomy little pitiable girl was healed by a mature, steady, gentle motherly figure, with the story naturally leading into indescribable explicit fiction.
Apparently, the author was a famous big name in the fandom. Her writing was healing, painful and sweet, while her erotic scenes fell somewhere between mild and flooding a dam—sometimes coy, sometimes wild. She was a rare artist in the fanfiction world.
As for Liang Xiaoxiao, because of the realistic issues of her popularity and looks, some people did ship her enough to open a CP community. But her popularity and buzz were completely incomparable to the first two, not to mention the thriving Wu Zhong Jian Qing.
Even so, she still gained plenty of benefits. Otherwise, with her D-Class rating, the only thing in the first episode that could have caught some attention was her earlier flying-pancake dance move. She would not have had any further screen time at all.
Now, because she was in the same dorm as Chu Yuanqing, the additional screen time and the affection Qing Bao's fans extended to her would at least bring her Weibo account another hundred thousand or so followers.
And while the CP fans were shipping with blazing enthusiasm, a group of people finally reached the ending of the first episode.
The latter half of the episode had already progressed to the date synchronized with reality, describing the trainees' conditions on the final day before the Second Evaluation.
A quarter of the footage was given to the First A-Class contestants, showing an impressive training video and an exclusive individual interview.
At the same time, to advertise and put pressure on the First A-Class contestants,
those training and interview clips heavily emphasized the powerful effects of the Virtual Reality System and the other high-tech equipment.
On the other side, the remaining three quarters of the footage were used to describe the conditions of the various trainees.
F-Class, D-Class, and C-Class did not have independent practice rooms.
Thus, the recording method was to have an assistant randomly select a point in time with software, enter the practice room for each rank with a camera at that time, record less than five minutes of material, and conduct a simple interview with the people present.
This was clearly meant to encourage hardworking contestants.
In fact, the low-ranked contestants who were recorded for the main episode and aired had an average daily training time of twelve hours. They were the kings among grind kings.
Some of these girls wept like pear blossoms in the rain, some had determined eyes, some choked out that they wanted to stand on stage, while others had adjusted their state and said that effort might not bring rewards, but they would not regret it.
The BGM stirred up the emotions, and paired with the cruel Elimination Mechanism, it was hard for viewers not to feel countless emotions.
This method of contrast turned the high-ranked contestants into dragons living in treasure caves, while the low-ranked contestants were naturally viewed as heroes rising against the odds.
For a time, many passersby chose to support the latter.
And just then, amid this atmosphere,
the scene shifted once more. It was the assistant from earlier arriving at the C-Class practice room and inviting Chu Yuanqing for an interview.
Among all the contestants in the first episode, Chu Yuanqing's popularity was, if not among the very top, at least in the top ten.
Especially after viewers had watched the interviews with the First A-Class contestants, what information this girl might reveal in her interview successfully raised their expectations once more.
And her answer to the first question, about appearing bare-faced, completely shocked the viewers:
"???"
"Damn, no way? She really went bare-faced the whole time?"
"This is ridiculous. I always thought Chu Yuanqing had some kind of high-end natural makeup on, the kind you couldn't see at all."
"I'm gnashing my teeth in jealousy. Nuwa really knows how to mold people."
"Oh no, now I want Qing Bao to fuck me even more???!"
"No, does nobody think she's seriously putting on airs with that line? What does 'it's too expensive, I can't afford it' even mean? It's pretty funny. A cheaper makeup set costs only five hundred. Isn't this a rather clumsy way to attract attention and show off her looks?"
Those words were still fairly provocative to passersby, stirring up quite a bit of trouble for a while.
But for Chu Yuanqing's fans, it was a completely different matter. They knew the reason and were currently devastated, so how could they tolerate hearing such words?
Thus, a large group of people mobilized like an army. Those who needed to explain did so, and those who needed to clap back did so, filling the screen completely. Only when Chen Xiaoxiao hurriedly asked some lighter questions did the atmosphere ease.
In the program, Chu Yuanqing was describing her impressions of her roommates.
The Bullet Comments all complained:
"I actually saw the radiance of motherly love condensing into a halo behind underage Qing Bao!"
"To be fair, her tone and attitude are too much like she's looking down from above. It feels like she's stepped outside the concept of being a contestant and is viewing them as a parent would. It's weirdly adorable no matter how you hear it."
"Wuwuwu, how can someone spend so long talking about others in her own exclusive interview? Sincerity really is the ultimate move. I've been completely wrecked."
After that, the assistant's next few questions pushed the viewers' emotions even higher.
And the final question was especially hilarious to viewers who had watched the behind-the-scenes footage. For a while, the rolling Bullet Comments in the program were almost overflowing with cheerful laughter.
Why did you choose to participate?
This was a routine closing question. Many of the contestants interviewed before had talked at length about their dreams and childhood stories. Some were reserved yet touching, some were deeply sincere, some were full of conviction, and some were witty and amusing.
As for Chu Yuanqing, viewers who had seen the behind-the-scenes footage expected her to keep seriously spouting nonsense as she had on stage, creating a contrast that would make people laugh aloud.
But on the screen,
Chu Yuanqing fell silent for a while. The light in her eyes as she looked over faded. On her youthful yet cool face, her lips pressed together before curving into a smile as she spoke seriously:
"Sorry, I lied to the mentors before."
"The reason I joined was because the Program Group pays very well. That's all."
At that, the girl paused. Her brows and eyes lowered, as though relieved, and the upward curve of her lips deepened.
"The stage and being an idol are not things I pursue."
Her voice was as light as a dandelion drifting on the wind, yet it seemed to carry mournful morning mist as it embraced every viewer before the screen, bringing a long silence and a lingering chill that refused to disperse from their chests.
When her words ended, the interview footage ended as well.
The first episode officially came to an end with that lingering, deeply meaningful conclusion.
All the Bullet Comments on the video stopped scrolling. The screen froze in hopeless darkness, reflecting Xu Ling's stunned, speechless face like an abyss.
Drip.
A teardrop rolled onto the dinosaur plush in her arms.
Then, like pearls from a broken string, more tears fell uncontrollably.
Xu Ling seemed to have been swallowed by the "gloom" conveyed in that frame. Or perhaps, for the first time, she had seen through that outer shell and glimpsed the side of her that was fragile as a child, seeing a complete and vivid Chu Yuanqing through it.
The pity, guilt, and sorrow born from shared pain that erupted in that instant overwhelmed reason, making her tears flow beyond her control.
In a daze, Xu Ling realized that from this moment onward, her affection for Chu Yuanqing was no longer an offshoot born from Kiriwake Yayoi. She was now, in the truest sense, another Little Idol worthy of love—entirely distinct from the former.
A lot of the time, idol chasing was like this.
Those fans who seemed fanatical and incomprehensible to outsiders, who called celebrities and idols a whole generation older than themselves "baby" and called themselves mom, did not only see what their idols looked like in the present. They saw the course of an entire life.
Within those full, vivid journeys carved by youth, there were always precious emotions that transcended time.
And in the fleeting moments when fans resonated with those emotions, the joy and tenderness they felt could always transcend the limits of age, making them cry out words outsiders could not understand.
It looked foolish, yet some people truly relied on drawing strength from and resonating with those emotions to endure a period of darkness in their lives, become better and more outstanding, grow into a better version of themselves, and astonish the youth of the rest of their lives.
Before you continue